


I Can Show You the World

by AtticusAtlas



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Background Hyungwon/Wonho, Chae Hyungwon is the President of the Korea Club, Comedy, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Kihyun is an International Student, M/M, Minhyuk is Korean-American, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Smut, Super Soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-01-24 11:36:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 73,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18570667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtticusAtlas/pseuds/AtticusAtlas
Summary: Minhyuk is an University student who gets bribed to attend a meeting at his college's Korea Club by his best friend. He ends up being smitten with an international exchange student who makes him think of Disney songs.





	1. A Whole New World

Minhyuk groaned when the alarm on his phone went off. He squeezed his eyes to shut further, not ready to fully open them yet, the high-pitched sound continuing in the background. He flopped from his belly onto his back, tossing his arm over to rest on his forehead, gingerly opening his left eye as the afternoon sun peeked in through his window, blanketing his bedroom with a warm glow. Waking up at 4pm in the afternoon (like the responsible adult that he was) was better than waking up at 7am in the morning, but it was still waking up none-the-less.

He groaned again, flopping back on to his stomach, face in his pillow. He slapped his hand all over his bedside table, hoping eventually he’d touch the screen on his phone to silence his obnoxious alarm and after about sixteen slaps and one bruised finger later, the alarm finally shut off. He pumped his fist in the air in triumph before he let it fall back to his twin-sized mattress.

It was Sunday. A rare Sunday where he didn’t have to work and the last Sunday before the start of the fall semester. He had intended to spend the day doing something semi-productive, such as getting his backpack situated for his new morning classes or vacuuming his room which he hadn’t done since the beginning of Spring semester, but instead he had spent it sleeping in after staying up until 5am drinking with his roommate/best friend (like the responsible adult that he was).

After a few more minutes of attempting to become one with his mattress, he rolled to his side and sat up on the edge of his bed, stretching his arms above and rolling his head, cracking his neck in the process.

“Ow,” he said, wincing at the headache that began to pop up behind his eye. He was going to need some pain killers before the headache formed into a full-blown hangover. He stood up, ruffling his blond hair with his large hand as he grabbed a black t-shirt from the floor. He gave it an experimental sniff before shrugging, slipping it onto his lean torso as he padded across the room.

He opened his door, kicking away an empty pizza box (did they eat in the hallway?) as he walked along. He paused at the door next to his and stared at the fake wood. The whining sound of his roommate’s alarm that sounded _exactly_ like a tornado siren was blaring loud enough that he could hear it as if he was inside the room. He rolled his eyes, disregarding the fact that he had also been ignoring his own alarm minutes before and continued to the end of the hall to the bathroom.

He flipped on the florescent light and he instantly regretted it, hissing at the sudden unnatural brightness before stumbling over to the sink. He reached into the medicine cabinet and opened the bottle of painkillers, popping two into his mouth and swallowing them dry. He lazily brushed his teeth and popped in his contact lenses as if he normally started his days in the early evening. Taking a quick look over his face, he combed his fingers through his blond locks before giving himself a nod. _Yep_ , he thought, _adorable._ He turned his heel and flicked the light off to the bathroom as he exited.

He stopped in front of his roommate’s room again and stared at the door, alarm still singing the song of its people. Resigned, he opened the door with enough force that it ricocheted off the wall on the inside with a loud bang.

“Hyungwon!” he shouted at the lump that was on the messy bed covered with at least six blankets. “Turn off your alarm!” The lump didn’t budge even though a tornado drill had been going on for at least fifteen minutes in the 10 by 10 room.  Minhyuk sighed, stepping over a pile of clothes as he looked around the bedroom to try and find the source of the noise.

Hyungwon had one of those stupid robotic alarms that would roll off whatever surface it was on, forcing the owner to get out of bed to find it to turn it off. It had actually been a present from Minhyuk that he had gotten him last Christmas in hopes that it would make the other actually get out of bed in the morning.

It was a terrible idea and Minhyuk regretted it every day.

“Okay…Where are you, you little fucker,” mumbled Minhyuk, looking around the messy room.

“Ah ha!” he exclaimed, finding the machine against the far wall next to his ( _his_ , not Hyungwon’s) NES Classic on the floor. He grabbed the incredibly loud demon in the form of a robotic alarm clock and marched over to the bed. He held it out at arm’s length at the mass under the blankets. “Watch and learn,” he said, raising his opposite hand, pointer finger extended as he pressed the small button on the device, finally silencing it. He tossed it at the part of the lump near the headboard which he guessed was Hyungwon’s head, but it was equally as likely that it was his ass as they were roughly the same size. “See? It’s like magic.”

Finally, the lump groaned and a thin arm wormed its way out of the blankets near the foot  of the bed, reaching behind towards his back where the object had landed on his backside.

“Ow,” the lump said, grabbing the alarm and tossing it hard across the room. Minhyuk watched as it fell, completely unscathed, onto the floor. It was seriously a product of Satan.

“Funny,” said Minhyuk cheerfully, hopping across his friend and onto the other side of the bed. “That’s what I said when I woke up too,” he slapped Hyungwon’s (now at its confirmed location) ass. “It’s like we’re twins.”

Hyungwon yelped, finally excavating himself out of his blanket prison and sat up blurry eyed and clearly not ready to face the nearly finished day. The blankets pooled around his waist, tan chest bare and body looking like a human-shaped string bean. He ran a hand through his black hair, gigantic brown eyes finally looking at Minhyuk with a practiced bored annoyance of someone who could easily sleep for 26 hours straight if the world would let him. “What time is it?” he asked, sleepily rubbing his eyes.

“4:30 and that’s p-dot-m,” answered Minkyuk. “What time did you set your alarm for?”

“Noon.”

“I see that worked out well for you,” said Minhyuk, though he couldn’t help but be impressed. “How in the ever-loving hell did you sleep with that for four-and-a-half-fucking hours?”

“I’m just really good at toning out obnoxious noise,” sighed Hyungwon, smirking tiredly and scratching at his ear. “Which is why I’ve been able to be your friend for this long.”

Minhyuk held his hand against his chest in mock outrage. “ _Wow_. And I had heard that accounting majors were supposed to be kind hearted people.”

“No one has said that in the history of ever.”

“Well, princess Aurora, you might want to listen to those people who said such nice things,” the blond crooned, getting off the bed and walking towards the door. “Because I only make breakfast-dinner for people who are nice to me.”

“Your cheerful disposition is the only thing that gets me up in the morning,” Hyungwon’s voice called after him. “Did I mention I love your Disney references?”

“Damn right you do. Now get up, I’m making grilled cheese.”

 

☼

 

“So, are you going to come tomorrow?”

Minhyuk cursed loudly as his Reaper was sniped by a Widowmaker, effectively ignoring Hyungwon’s question. Competitive Overwatch was brutal and the same Widowmaker had already killed him 5 times. “Jesus, where are our healers!?” he asked, gripping the PS4 controller too tightly in his hands, annoyed. They had only decided to play a quick match. It was now, roughly, six hours later.

“Uh, I’m behind the Reinhardt where it’s _safe_ ,” snapped Hyungwon, looking at his respective screen. They were both still clad in their pajamas. “I can’t heal a headshot, anyway.”

“Yeah, but you could have resurrected me!” Minhyuk glared as he finally respawned, soon after shooting and killing a Mei who had been camping near their spawn point. “What kind of Mercy are you?”

“Oh, get off the cross—we need the wood,” drawled Hyungwon. Minhyuk peeked at the other’s screen to still see his Mercy hanging close behind Reinhardt and his shield, healing stream engaged. “It’s your own fault for teleporting so far away. I’m a healer not a sacrificial lamb.”

Minhyuk made his lips into a tight line as he tried to rush to capture the point. However, he was a second too late, the clock ran out and the match ended with angry red font on their twin screens that read _DEFEAT_. He tossed his controller onto the cushion between them on the couch. “Fuck it, I hate this game. Why do I even play it?” he asked. He scowled for a few more seconds before slowly grabbing his controller again. “Wanna play another match?”

“It’s already 11:30,” said Hyungwon, letting his PS4 switch back to the title screen. “And you didn’t answer my question.”

Minhyuk glared at his screen as he watched his Competitive score fall from 2,036 points to 2,006 points. With a sigh, he dropped the controller down to his lap to look at his thin friend. “What was the question again?” he asked.

Hyungwon narrowed his eyes, his puffy lips in a frown. “I _said_ , ‘Are you coming tomorrow?’”

 “Maybe with enough booze and lube we could make something happen, but it _is_ a school night,” said Minhyuk, tilting his head in thought.

“Hilarious,” drawled Hyungwon. “You’re fucking hilarious.”

“I know, right?” The blond grinned, but took pity on his companion. “Sorry. Come to what?”

The other sighed tiredly, resting his arm on the back of the couch. “Tomorrow is the first meeting of the semester for the Korea club.”

“Ah, that’ll be a hard no from me, thanks,” said Minhyuk shaking his head. He grabbed the controller and thumbed over to the hero gallery. He went in to see if he had enough gold to get Reaper’s new legendary skin and he frowned when he saw he was 500 gold short. “But you have fun though,” he added as an afterthought.

Hyungwon groaned, tossing his head back. “Come on, _please_ go to the meeting. You’re technically the secretary so you should be there anyway.”

“I’m only the secretary because you’re the president and you did it try and guilt me into going to the meetings in the first place,” sighed Minhyuk. “Which still isn’t working. Why they would elect a lazy guy like you to be the president is beyond me anyway.”

“Because over seventy-five percent of the members think I’m pretty and no one else wanted to do it,” said Hyungwon, matter-of-factly. “You’re Korean. You should at least go to, I dunno, represent your heritage or whatever.”

Minhyuk couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Was he Korean? Yes, he sure as hell was. Third generation Korean-American, to be accurate. He would even argue that he was pretty damn proud to be Korean if his love for kimchi was anything to go by. The problem was that being in a ‘Korea Club’ at a small university was a walking advertisement for weirdos.

“The last time I went to a meeting,” began Minhyuk slowly letting his brown eyes meet his best friend’s, “I spent the entire time trying to shake off three girls who wouldn’t stop touching me and kept asking if they could call me ‘oppah’. That isn’t what I call representing my heritage, at least in my book.” He shivered at the memory. “Plus, most of the members are girl Koreaboos who only want to talk about BTS and My Sassy Girl while trying to get into my pants at the same time. I’m a gay man, Hyungwon. A gay, _gay_ man.”

Hyungwon grabbed his shoulder and nodded sincerely. “The gayest man I know.”

The blond shrugged off his hand almost instantly. “Then you should understand why I’d rather spend my precious time after class and before work doing, literally, anything other than translating how to say ‘dick’ in Korean to a bunch of girls who just want to giggle at me and tell me how cute I am.”

“I get it, man,” said Hyungwon, scooching over to the middle cushion of the worn-out couch so their thighs were now touching. He wrapped an arm around Minhyuk’s shoulder and rested his head against the blonde’s soft cheek. “I put up with that at basically every meeting, I feel your pain. Here’s the thing though—we have two new international students coming to the meeting who are straight from the motherland. I actually want them to feel welcome and I feel like the more actual Korean people there, the better it’ll be.”

“Still not interested,” Minhyuk replied gruffly, attempting to shake his friend from his side. He didn’t succeed.

“They’re guys,” added Hyungwon, grip tightening.

“Mm. That’s more tempting, but the whole thing is still going to be a clam bake even with two more sausages joining the party,” shrugged Minhyuk, even though his interest was piqued. Just a little, though.

There was a mutual silence that surrounded them both, before Hyungwon lifted his head and grabbed Minhyuk’s chin so he was forced to stare the other in the face. The thin man leaned in close. “I’ll buy 10-bucks worth of loot boxes.”

He raised an eyebrow. He could feel the other man’s breath on his face and he clearly didn’t brush his teeth. “My time is worth only 10 dollars’ worth of loot boxes to you? Still a no.”

“Okay, fine, twenty dollars.”

“Nope.”

“Are we actually even friends?”

“Dunno, depends on the day.”

“ _Fine_!” Hyungwon said, tossing his hands in the air and detaching from his side. “Forty dollars of loot boxes and I’ll do the dishes for the next month. Deal?”

Minhyuk stared at him carefully, really wanting to drag this out as long as possible. He watched as Hyungwon’s face begin to melt from confidence into disappointment before he sighed and tossed his controller into the other’s lap. “Add them before I change my mind,” he said finally and wagged a finger at Hyungwon in warning. “But if I have to ask you to do the dishes even once, I’ll hack into your Facebook account and post that picture of your dick that you sent to me by accident. Got it?”

Hyungwon’s eyes widened into perfect circles, controller limp in his hand. “…Why do you even still have that?”

“For times like this, my friend.”

“You’re an awful person, you know that?”

“I love you too.”

 

☼

 

 _I regret everything_ , Minhyuk thought to himself miserably as he sat in the uncomfortable metal chair in the cold club room of his University. He was sitting next to a freshman girl with fried blonde hair (he was blonde too, but seriously, had she even _heard_ of conditioner?) who was talking his ear off about literally _everything_ stereotypically Korean and kept touching his arm or the skin through his ripped jeans in intervals. The problem was that it was hard for him to be mean to strangers, so instead of telling the girl that she could fuck right off with all of her Korean boys-love comics to the bottom of the ocean, he found himself just smiling awkwardly and nodding, trying to at least enjoy his carton of free banana milk. 

“No, seriously though, I really love Korean culture which is why I came here!” she gushed, grabbing his arm again. He glanced at his appendage sadly. It had had so much to live for.  “I’m majoring in Korean but I’ve learned a bit from watching K-dramas, already.” The girl then said ‘hello’ to him in Korean, but her pronunciation sounded a lot less like ‘ _Annyeonghaseyo_ ’ and a lot more like ‘ _onion caserole’_.

“Wow,” said Minhyuk, smiling robotically. “Impressive.” _Please, kill me._

“Oh, there you are.”

Minhyuk looked up, eyes on the noodle-like body of his best friend as Hyungwon walked up to him. He looked like he had walked off a runway, tight black skinny jeans and a white button-up shirt, the whole ensemble accentuated by his signature hair flip.

“Hey,” Minhyuk greeted weakly, waving his hand. He hoped that everything he was feeling was conveyed in his look as he stared at Hyungwon.

Hyungwon looked like he was trying to fight a fit of laughter. “Having fun?” he struggled.

“Oh my gosh, I’m having a blast!” said the blonde girl, looking at Hyungwon with her eyes sparkling in awe. “I’m Jenny!”

“That’s great. I’m so happy to hear it, Jenny,” Hyungwon said with his puffy lips slipping into a smile and the girl swooned. “I need to steal my friend for a minute, do you mind?”

Before ‘Jenny’ could answer, Minhyuk looked at Hyungwon with the most serious face he could muster. He spoke in fast paced Korean: “Steal me. Seriously. Sell me into slavery or cut off my legs, I don’t care, just— _take me away_.”

“Oh, that sounds pretty! What did you say?” asked Jenny excitedly.

“He can translate for you later,” Hyungwon said, grabbing Minhyuk by the arm and began pulling him away. “Feel free to eat some snacks! They’re in the back corner.” Hyungwon called over his shoulder.

“I’ve never hated you more than I do in this moment,” Minhyuk hissed once they were far enough away from Jenny who, thankfully, busied herself with the snack table. “She wouldn’t stop talking about BTS and how Min Suga was the best member—like I’m just supposed to know that shit.” He actually did know that shit, not that he would tell her that (and the best member was, obviously, Rap Monster).

“I’m sorry, I would have saved you sooner, but the two international students got lost trying to find the place and I had to go help them,” said Hyungwon, he rubbed Minhyuk’s back apologetically. “I wasn’t even gone that long—I’m shocked you got accosted so quickly with your whole wallflower routine you had been working on when I left you.”

“Yeah, well, I made the mistake to go and get a banana milk and she pretty much talk-raped me from then on out,” he said, now realizing he no longer had the small carton in his hand. He looked longingly to the snack table before Jenny waved at him from across the room, grinning and a banana milk in her hand. He turned quickly to Hyungwon and shuddered. “Can we go home now?”

“Dude, you’ve been here, like, forty minutes. You can stay a little longer.”

Minhyuk groaned and lolled his head onto Hyunwon’s shoulder. His day was already dragging on after all his classes, plus he worked in two hours. But, a promise was a promise and he always kept his word if he could help it. “ _Fine_ ,” he whined. “Where are the authentic Koreans, anyway?”

“Oh,” said Hyungwon, glancing around the room. Eventually he stopped his eyes on the seats at the front of the room. “They’re over there.”

Minhyuk lazily followed the other’s gaze to fall on the two occupied seats next to the dirty white board and Minhyuk blinked. Then he blinked again. Then one more time for good measure.

Minhyuk swallowed, mouth suddenly dry and his eyes focused on a head of dark red hair and a small, high cheek boned face with a smile so blinding it could kill a kitten. Or maybe a baby hamster. Not that he was saying he wanted it to, but he just _really_ liked the fact that when this guy smiled, his eyes created perfect little crescent moons as he talked with his friend next to him. 

“Wha--,” Minhyuk started, licking his lips. He blinked his eyes again. “What’s his name?”

He wasn’t looking at Hyungwon, but he could hear the grin in his voice. “The beefy tan guy is Hyunwoo—he’s really nice but super awkward,” he began, moving his hand that had still been on Minhyuk’s back up to rest on his shoulder. “The tiny one with the red hair is Kihyun. He didn’t talk to me much, but he came off as a bit like a cocky asshole. I could be wrong though.”

Minhyuk had stopped paying attention to him after he heard the other’s name. “Kihyun?” he said quietly, testing the name on his lips. Kihyun. He liked it.

“Uh oh,” he faintly heard Hyungwon mutter.

It may have been because he was studying to become a kindergarten teacher, but Minhyuk had a deep love for Disney movies and had a tendency to relate important life events to his favorite Disney songs. As he looked at Kihyun, he couldn’t ignore how his mind started singing songs from Aladdin, specifically, _A Whole New World_.  He imagined himself on a magic carpet ride with himself and Kihyun. Minhyuk was Aladdin.

And he found his Jasmine.

 

☼

 

Kihyun had been brought up in a typical, conservative Korean family. He went to mass every Sunday and sang in the church choir. He did well in school, always did his homework and never missed class. He had been raised to be polite and obey the rules. To be the son that his parents had always wanted him to be: obedient, straight edge, bland.

It was completely, utterly suffocating and he _hated_ it.

When his parents saw that he had applied and gotten into an international exchange program at an American University, they had outright opposed his decision. However, with a lot of coaxing and explaining that what he really wanted to be was an English interpreter, they eventually relented and allowed him to go. He was finally set free.

 _Freedom_.

That’s what he had felt when he had landed after the twelve-hour flight and he took his first step on American soil. Well, and a whole lot of terror, too. But still. _Freedom_.

It was a lot to get used to. For instance, not bowing to people in greeting or to say thank you—that was an adjustment. The fact that people found slurping your noodles impolite was also an adjustment among many other things. Being immersed into a culture that was incredibly different than the one he had lived in for his first twenty-two years of life was most definitely a change. But he had played every Grand Theft Auto game that had been released, how much different could it be? He also had his childhood friend, Hyunwoo, with him and that helped.

With his GTA knowledge aside, it seemed like a no brainer to join his new University’s Korea Club to try and meet some new people on the first day. However, besides for talking to Hyungwon (the club’s president—one of those obnoxiously handsome guys that looked like they walked off the cover of Vogue but had the attitude of always being bored and seemingly unaware of how attractive he actually was), Kihyun found himself off by himself, only talking to Hyunwoo and not really able to go and network.

That being said, he was mildly surprised (and a bit alarmed) when he heard the high pitch squeaking of a metal chair sliding angrily over the linoleum and realized it was coming in his general direction. The person had been sitting on the chair backwards, legs on either side of the seat and scooted across the floor, one loud slide at a time like a stuttering choo-choo train. Kihyun couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as it would have _clearly_ been much easier to just pick up the chair and bring it over.

“Hi!” the person greeted in Korean informally upon his arrival, raising a hand by his face.  He looked to be around Kihyun and Hyunwoo’s age, also Korean, with nearly white-blond hair, sharp jaw and a pretty face, his brown eyes blinking as he grinned like a blinding sun at him. “My name Lee Minhyuk, it’s nice to meet you.” His voice was _very_ husky. This must have been the friend that Hyungwon had been telling him about earlier, who, in his words, ‘never shuts up, but is really friendly’.

Kihyun blinked at the other, still a bit thrown off at the strange way the blond had arrived. “Hello, I’m Yoo Kihyun,” he replied (also in Korean), pointing a finger behind him, “and this is Son Hyunwoo, it’s nice to meet you…” he trailed off—the blond didn’t seem to have an off switch for smiling. “Not to sound rude, but could you speak to me in English? The whole reason we’re here is to improve our communication skills in English, not Korean.”

Seemingly not offended, Minhyuk shrugged, finally lowering his raised hand. He blinked at them again. “Sure, my Korean isn’t that’s great anyway,” he said, in English. “Do you like Aladdin?”

It was Kihyun’s turn to blink. He glanced over to Hyunwoo, who looked as robotic as always. He turned back to the smiling boy. “You mean...Like the book?”

Minhyuk waved his hand around. “I mean, it’s _based_ off the book, but I’m talking about the Disney movies, like Aladdin or Aladdin: Return of Jafar. Though Return of Jafar is my least favorite of the two and sort of pointless in my opinion—kind of like the Lion King Two: Simba’s Pride. They just made them to make more money without really contributing to the original story, you know what I mean?”

Wow. That was a whole lot nothing said in an incredibly short amount of time (and no, he didn’t know what the other meant). “I haven’t seen any of those movies, I’ve never really been into Disney,” said Kihyun slowly.

Minhyuk blinked again, and Kihyun found himself blinking back at him as he watched the other form his mouth into a perfect ‘o’. What was it about this guy’s blinking, anyway? “You _haven’t_?” he sounded scandalized. “Don’t they have Korean versions of Disney?”

“We do. Doesn’t mean I have to watch them,” said Kihyun. He then realized that this was probably the most English he had ever spoken to a native speak thus far and it was all about movies for children. “Minhyuk, how old are you?”

Minhyuk’s mouth changed from the perfect ‘o’ and slipped back into his smile—he looked like he tried to show off as much of his incredibly white teeth as possible. “I’m twenty-two. How about you?”

Kihyun paused for a moment as he almost gave his Korean age (another thing to adjust to), “Twenty-two,” he said eventually. “When’s your birthday?”

“November third. Yours?”

“November twenty-second.”

“Oh! We’re born in the same month!” said Minhyuk, clearly excited. He scooted his chair a little closer so that he was now placed directly in front of Kihyun’s line of vision. “Hey, since I’m older, doesn’t that mean you should call me ‘hyung’ or something?”

Kihyun snorted, moving a chunk of red hair out of his eyes. “We’re basically the same age—I wouldn’t call you ‘hyung’, that’d be weird.” He tossed his hand to motion vaguely next to him, still keeping his eyes on Minhyuk. “Hyunwoo is twenty-three, so you and I would call him ‘hyung’. Not that it matters in English, anyway.”

“There’s no one next to you right now. He left a little while ago.”

Kihyun bobbed his head back and he looked to his side. Hyunwoo’s chair was empty, the antisocial and awkward traitor. He glanced around to see if he could spot the tall, muscular man and not surprisingly, he spotted him at the table full of food, talking to some blonde girl.

“Anyway,” said Minhyuk, grabbing Kihyun’s attention again. He looked forward and watched as the other man scooted his chair a few centimeters closer to him. He was pretty close now, close enough to see that Minhyuk had a loose eyelash sitting on his cheek. “We should hang out sometime. I’d love to be your ambassador and show you around campus or whatever.”

“Huh?” said Kihyun, very distracted by the eyelash. “I mean—.”

“Hey, do you have a KakaoTalk?”

Kihyun couldn’t help the confused expression that landed on his face. He wasn’t expecting an American, even a Korean-American, to have a KakaoTalk. “I do, but you actually use KakaoTalk? I didn’t think it was popular over here.” He watched the eyelash move with the other’s facial expressions, but it continued to hang on. It was driving him nuts. 

“I downloaded it ten minutes ago,” said Minhyuk proudly. He reached into the pocket of his incredibly ripped jeans and pulled out his iPhone. “What’s your ID? You’ll be my first contact.”

Feeling a little awkward, but honestly appreciating the effort to get to know him, he gave Minhyuk his user ID and he watched the other add him into his phone. As Minhyuk tapped on his phone screen, Kihyun gave up, finally giving into his urges and leaned forward close enough so he could use his thumb to swipe the eyelash from the blonde’s face.

Realizing what he had done he paused for a moment as Minhyuk looked up at him, now _incredibly_ close, blinking at him once again. He watched as Minhyuk opened his mouth in surprise, a pink tongue flicking out to lick at his lips.

“Uh,” said Kihyun intelligently, leaning back. His heart unexpectedly skipped a beat. “Sorry, I--,” he held up his thumb, the lash sticking to it, “You had a, uh, a…” _Shit, I can’t remember the English word for eyelash_. “You had this on your face.” He said finally, blowing off the eyelash from his thumb, not knowing what else to say.

Minhyuk’s face stared at him for a moment before he let out a husky laugh, leaning his elbow on the back of the chair and pillowing his chin in his palm. The smile he gave Kihyun was…Sultry? “That was pretty romantic of you, Kihyun-ah.”

The red-head flushed. He tried to ignore it. “I wasn’t being romantic—and why are you speaking in Korean again? I thought you said you weren’t very good at it.”

Minhyuk grinned at him, tapping his long fingers on his cheek as he stared Kihyun down. “Calm down, I’m just giving you shit. Plus, I thought it would be less embarrassing to say it in Korean. Anyway,” the other said, finally standing up from his chair. Kihyun scowled mentally as he realized that the other man was quite a bit taller than him. And very lean. And _fit_. It was annoying. “I have to get ready to go to work, but I’ll message you sometime.” His grin didn’t leave his face as he waved at him. “See you around, Kihyun.”

Kihyun nodded at him, face still feeling a bit warm around his cheeks. He watched the other walk towards his friend Hyungwon, his back now turned to him.

 _What a weird guy._           

           

☼

 

“Kihyun-ah,” he heard Hyunwoo say from his side of the dorm room. Kihyun was currently sitting at his desk under his loft bed, his English textbook opened in front of him, highlighter in hand. He opened his mouth to reply to the older man, when he was distracted by his phone vibrating on his desk.

He looked over, seeing he had a new message from Lee Minhyuk on KakaoTalk. He swiped his phone screen to see the message.

<Minhyuk: hey short pale and handsome! whatcha doing?>

Kihyun scowled at the word ‘short’. He began to tap a reply, when his phone vibrated again. Minhyuk sent a sticker of a cat eating ramen. Then another of Ryan from Ryan and Friends playing a tambourine. Quickly followed by another sticker of Ryan eating ramen, like the cat eating ramen wasn’t enough. His scowl deepened as he realized that Minhyuk must have spent a small fortune in the KakaoTalk store on fucking _stickers_.

“Hey, short, pale and handsome,” a voice said with a thick accent over his shoulder.

Kihyun snapped his head to peer behind him in surprise, looking to find Hyunwoo squinting as he looked over him at his messages. “Hey, give a warning, hyung!”

“I called your name three times, but you didn’t answer me,” said Hyunwoo, looking at the animated sticker of Ryan playing the tambourine in mild amusement. “Talking to Minhyuk again?”

“He never shuts up,” Kihyun mumbled.

It had been a week since he had been in the United States and he had completed his first five days of classes. He was happy to find that he was able to understand his lectures, but he really had to focus to completely get what was going on. It would get better, though.

He had found out that the majority of Minhyuk’s classes took place in the same building as his own. He had discovered this when he had been standing stagnant in a hallway, looking at a piece of paper with his class number on it in utter confusion, not knowing where to go.

“Hi!” a hyper-sounding voice had called from behind him and Kihyun spun around to see the grinning face of Minhyuk, hands in his pockets as he leaned forward, getting into his personal space, attractive face blaring for all to see. “Lost?”

“Not really, I’m just trying to find—,” Kihyun had begun, only to have the piece of paper he had been holding in his hand ripped from him.

“You need classroom 204C?” Minhyuk had said, looking at the paper and glancing around before pointing to a nearby stairwell. “You’ll need to go up those stairs and head to the fourth classroom in, past the computer lab.”

“Oh, well—.”

“I’ll walk you there!”

And then Minhyuk had proceeded to walk him to the classroom, bouncing in his steps like he was made out of Jell-O. It ended up leading to Minhyuk walking him to any classes he could (along with trips to the library, cafeteria, the bathroom… _everywhere_ ). Kihyun would always give the blonde an exacerbated look as he was an adult and could manage to get from point A to point B on his own, but deep down he actually kind of liked how Minhyuk tagged along with him. Not that he would admit that. Ever.

Kihyun was pulled out of his thoughts as Hyunwoo grabbed the phone from his hands, wheeling his chair back over to his side of the room.

“Hyung—give that back!”

“Wow,” said Hyunwoo, leaning back in the computer chair as he swiped his thumb up on the phone. “Have you guys even stopped talking since you met at the club meeting?”

“If you consider ‘talking’ him sending me a ton of emojis and stickers,” Kihyun grumbled, feeling suddenly embarrassed. He rushed over to try and grab the phone back, but Hyunwoo just pushed out a muscular arm against Kihyun’s chest as he leaned away, continuing to scroll.

“Hm,” said Hyunwoo. “You talk to him more than you’ve ever talked to me on KakaoTalk. Interesting.”

“That’s because you’re about as talkative as me.” Kihyun struggled, reaching out a short arm as his fingers swiped at the general direction of the phone in the air, completely in vain. If his fingers were _just_ a few centimeters longer… “I don’t even think Minhyuk-ah breathes when he talks in person and he messages just as fast. It’s annoying. Now give back my phone.”

Hyunwoo looked at Kihyun with an eyebrow arched. “‘Minhyuk- _ah_ ’, huh?” he repeated.

The red-head ignored him as he leaned forward, past the muscles and managed to snatch his phone back. “Ah ha!” he said in triumph, glaring at Hyunwoo as he turned back to sit in his chair, plopping down harder onto it than was necessary.

“Your ears are red.”

“Shut up,” scowled Kihyun, hand subconsciously reaching for his right ear and itched it. “What did you need anyway?”

“Oh, can you spell ‘miscellaneous’ for me? I can’t get it right.”

Kihyun spelled it for him. After Hyunwoo thanked him, the two fell into silence again. Once he knew Hyunwoo’s attention was elsewhere, he peeked into the small mirror he had at his desk and glanced at his ears. They were bright red.

His phone vibrated in his hand. He swiped open the message.

<Minhyuk: i can tell you saw my message are you ignoring me? (Ryan crying a waterfall of tears sticker)>

Kihyun sighed, closing his text book for the moment and finished typing his response from before.

<Kihyun: I’m studying.>

The reply was almost instant.

<Minhyuk: oooo. so you’re studying hard enough to look at the message but not reply I see how it is>

<Kihyun: Do you even know how to study?>

There was no reply. Kihyun stared at the screen. Had he pissed Minhyuk off? He always replied immediately after Kihyun messaged him back. He almost began to panic but let out a quiet sigh of relief when a picture loaded from Minhyuk. He scowled at himself for a minute. Why the hell did he panic? Anyway…

The picture was a selfie. Minhyuk was in a dimly lit room, dressed in a black button-up shirt and a red tie. His blond hair was tussled and he was smiling in a silly way that showed off his top and bottom teeth, his fingers in a peace sign held by his eye.

<Minhyuk: of course i know how to study shorty. i just got to work and i’m looking flyyyyyy>

<Kihyun: Will you quit calling me short??>

<Minhyuk: but you are short (cat rolling around sticker, plus two laughing and crying face emojis>

<Minhyuk: i look cute in my pic right>

<Minhyuk: right?>

<Minhyuk: Kihyun>

<Minhyuk: K.I.H.Y.U.N!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!>

<Kihyun: Oh my GOD. Do you not know how to have a normal conversation with a person? I’m ignoring you now, I need to keep studying.>

Kihyun snorted. He refused to call the other man cute. _Even if he is kind of cute_ , he thought absently and then glared at his internal monolog. He set his phone down and opened up his textbook again, popping off the cap of his pink highlighter with his teeth. He started highlighting a short paragraph when his phone vibrated loudly on his desk, three times in rapid succession. He let out a sigh, setting the highlighter down carefully so he didn’t mark the page where he didn’t want it to be marked and looked at his phone again.

<Minhyuk: hahahaha sorry your just really fun to pester (Ryan dancing sticker)>

<Minhyuk: it’s like i can see you frowning in my head and it’s hilarious>

<Minhyuk: do you got anything going on tomorrow after 3:30??>

Kihyun sighed, unable to ignore the grammatical typo in the first message. Clearly Minhyuk didn’t believe in proofreading. Also, why couldn’t Minhyuk just send one message with all he wanted to say instead of multiples? It was like he messaged the way his brain probably thought—sporadic, hyper and incomplete. Kihyun typed a simple reply.

<Kihyun: you’re*>

<Minhyuk: so much for ignoring me>

<Minhyuk: … and are you really going to be a grammar nazi? these are texts learn to live your life on the edge Kihyun>

<Minhyuk: so is that a yes for something going on tomorw?>

<Minhyuk: …tomorrow*

 A genuine smile spread across the red-head’s face before he could stop it. He really was happy that his back was facing Hyunwoo.

<Kihyun: You never give up, do you? No, I don’t have anything going on tomorrow afternoon. Why?>

<Minhyuk: wanna come hang out with me at my apartment and watch a movie?>

“Woah, he’s inviting you over to his place?”

Kihyun visibly jumped in his chair. Hyunwoo was, once again, perched over his shoulder, having swiveled over in his chair like some sort of ghost who never missed leg day.

“You know,” hissed Kihyun staring at the other through the corner of his eye, “for such a giant guy you make, literally, no noise when you move. It’s creepy. We need to put a bell on you before you give me a heart attack.”

“I make plenty of noise; you were just too into what you were doing to notice,” the older man graced Kihyun with a playful smile, his small eyes crinkling. “But, seriously. You’re not going to sleep with him already, are you? You guys _just_ met. I get you’re excited about being able to be more yourself without your parents around, but no need to go crazy.”

Kihyun scowled, offended. Yet another cultural difference. In South Korea, adults normally didn’t invite one another over to their homes to spend time together. They would usually meet up somewhere out in public, like a café or something similar. Being invited over to someone’s house, especially in the evening was normally saved for more…‘private’ things.

“It’s normal for Americans to hang out at each other’s places, hyung,” explained Kihyun, looking back at his phone as Minhyuk sent him about five more random and pointless stickers. “Of course I’m not going to sleep with him! What do you take me for? He just wants to watch a movie—that’s innocent.” _…Right?_

Hyunwoo made a thoughtful noise. “America is weird,” he shrugged. He slid back over to his desk, seeming to get bored with teasing Kihyun (thank God). He swiveled around so his broad back was facing the red-head. “Well, just don’t ask him if he wants to eat ramyun with you.”

“ _Ha ha_.” Kihyun narrowed his eyes before stiffly turning back around to look at his phone in peace. There was another message from Minhyuk.

<Minhyuk: i’ll make popcorn!!>

Kihyun felt the corners of his mouth start to twitch. He glanced at himself in the mirror on the desk again. His ears were still red.

<Kihyun: Where would you want to meet up?>

<Minhyuk: !!!!!!! >

<Minhyuk: i’m done with my shift at 3:15!! you could stop by here and we could walk to my apartment together!!! is that okay??>

Wow, that was the most thoughts Kihyun had seen Minhyuk manage to put in the same message. Impressive.

<Kihyun: Sure. Just give the address.>

<Minhyuk: okay!!>

He let himself chuckle a moment, shaking his head as he set his phone down. He picked up his highlighter and continued reading his book, carefully and neatly highlighting another sentence on the page. He was smiling to himself as he continued to work, but it wasn’t as if he was _excited_ about meeting up with the cheery blond tomorrow.

Except that he totally was.


	2. I Can Open Your Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minhyuk and Kihyun hang out for the first time.

“Minhyuk, what the hell are you _doing_?”

Minhyuk looked up from the large garbage bag he had been filling up with pizza boxes to stare at the opening of the kitchen. Hyungwon was looking at him, dressed in his gas station uniform with incredibly wide eyes and his large mouth opened. The blond rolled his eyes and dropped the bag, adjusting the yellow rubber gloves he was wearing so they were sitting near his elbows. “Prostate exams, obviously,” he said, grinning and wiggling all ten of his fingers. “Assume the position, bitch.”

The tall, black-haired boy narrowed his eyes across the kitchen. He drawled out in Minhyuk’s direction: “The only time you’ll be anywhere _near_ my precious prostate is if you suddenly turn into your cousin’s dick—stop snapping your fucking gloves, it’s weirding me out!”

Minhyuk made a face at the comment of his cousin’s dick. He could appreciate the fact that his older cousin Hoseok was a good-looking guy with the body that was made for the cover of a Men’s Health magazine, but thinking about his dick was just gross. “'Fucking gloves'? Nice word choice. Anyway, if you want me to stop then stop asking stupid questions,” he said, grabbing the garbage bag again, tossing an empty bottle of Captain Morgan’s from the kitchen floor into it before tying it shut.

“Well, I’m sorry,” said Hyungwon sarcastically, walking into the kitchen and over to the fridge. “Color me shocked to see you actually cleaning the apartment. The last time I saw you clean was the beginning of last semester when you vacuumed your room for the first time.” Minhyuk watched as he opened the fridge door and grabbed a 16oz bottle of Mountain Dew from it before looking over to Minhyuk again. “I thought I was still sleeping or something. What gives?” 

“Yeah, well,” Minhyuk muttered, realizing that wasn’t really a valid answer as he went to the counter to grab another garbage bag. He walked over to the living room and started tossing empty soda and beer cans into it, not looking at Hyungwon. He heard the fridge door close behind him and his neck felt like it was burning from the gaze he could feel on it.

“Yeah, well?” Hyungwon repeated.

“I just,” the blond began, still not turning around as he continued to shove a couple of empty chip bags next to the beer cans. He felt like there should have been a part of him that was ashamed at the amount of empty food and booze containers in their apartment, but it just wasn’t there. His mouth formed into a thin line, trying to think of a way to get out of this conversation. He turned around to see Hyungwon looking at him expectantly. “I just,” he began again, waving his hand in the air, “felt like tidying up?” he tried.

Hyungwon snorted. He leaned against the door of the fridge, smirking as he opened the Mountain Dew, the bottle making a loud _tseee_ noise as he twisted the cap. “Who’s coming over?” he asked, knowingly. “One of your _friends_?”

“Bold of you to assume I have ‘friends’, as in plural.”

“This ought to be good,” Hyungwon continued, raising the plastic to his lips and he was still smirking, God damn it. “Lemme guess—it’s Kihyun, isn’t it?” He sipped his drink.

Minhyuk released a large sigh, finally giving up. He dropped the bag of garbage and walked up to his best friend and looked at him earnestly, grabbing at his arm with both gloved hands. “He’s so hot, Hyungwon.”

“Not really my type, but I can see where you’re coming from,” said the other, slowly, wiggling the arm in Minhyuk’s grasp a little bit. “Can you not touch me with those?”

The blond whipped off the rubber gloves, slapping them to the floor, only to grab on to the arm again, tugging at it. “Like, _really_ hot, Hyungwon,” he hissed. “And we’ve been talking for almost a week and he hasn’t blocked me yet!”

Hyungwon raised his eyebrows. “That’s actually impressive—he didn’t seem like the type that would put up with your bullshit.”

“I know, that’s what I’m saying!” urged Minhyuk, tugging on him harder. “He’s coming over after work today and I’m actually kind of nervous and nothing makes me nervous!”

“That explains the cleaning,” Hyunwon nodded, taking another sip of his Mountain Dew after finally freeing his thin arm from Minhyuk’s death grip. “You only vacuumed your room that one time because you had that guy you met on Grindr coming over. You never try to impress people that actually, like, know you.”

Minhyuk frowned at the memory. That Grindr date was one of the most awkward experiences he had ever had with a guy named ‘Gus’. He didn’t look anything like his profile picture and was super into feet for some reason. He didn’t find any of this out until the guy had actually come over to his apartment—needless to say, Minhyuk ended that date _really_ early and obviously didn’t get laid. He spent the entire night afterwards playing Battlegrounds and crying into a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos. It wasn’t a good day.

“That whole shit show is why I don’t use Grindr anymore and why I haven’t gotten laid since fall semester _last_ year,” he grumbled, swiping up his gloves from the floor and walking over to the microwave. “The thing is—I think I could really like him, you know?”

“The dude from Grindr?”

“ _No_ , you fucking ass-hat, Kihyun,” he sighed, pulling the gloves back onto his arms. “Kihyun is really smart and nice and pretty funny. He acts kind of like an asshole, but he comes off as pretty genuine over all, you know? Plus, he’s _so ho_ —.”

“Okay, I think we’ve both established that you think the short guy is hot. Can we move on, please?”

“I just want to get to know him and I’m trying to make this apartment look like it’s cohabitated by people who clean once in a while and maybe recycle,” finished Minhyuk. He popped the microwave door open and looked inside. After a moment, he slowly closed the door shut. He glanced over to his best friend. “I think we need to buy a new microwave.”

Hyungwon snorted, walking over to Minhyuk’s side as he sat his soda on the counter. “Come on, it can’t be that bad,” he said, popping open the door as well and stared. He closed it after a few seconds. “Yeah, buying a new one might be best.”

The blond pouted, pulling off his gloves again, feeling defeated. “I wanted to make popcorn,” he whined.

“Just stop by the gas station after work and buy a thing of Jiffy Pop.”

Minhyuk slapped his friend on the back, making the thin form cough as he lurched forward with the smack. “ _This_ is why you’re the smart one out of the two of us! What time do you work until?”

“ _Ow_ ,” grimaced Hyungwon, carrying his body hunched over like he was impersonating Quasimodo as he snatched up his drink from the counter. The baby. “Steph called in sick so I’m pulling a double—won’t be back until midnight.” He glanced over at Minhyuk, rubbing at his back absentmindedly. “Hey, don’t you work in twenty minutes?”

Minhyuk took the time to look at the clock on the microwave and his eyes widened instantaneously. “Oh, shit you’re right,” he screeched. He slapped his gloves onto the stove and ran towards the hallway to get to his bedroom. “Could you throw those bags away on your way out?” he called over his shoulder.

“Yeah, whatever,” mumbled Hyungwon, but grabbed the two trash bags anyway. After he had slipped on his sneakers and went to leave, he saw Minhyuk running around the apartment in a frenzy, spraying two bottles of Febreze all over the room as he closed the apartment door. 

           

☼

 

Kihyun was feeling antsy. Admittingly, this happened to be his first time out on his own in the new foreign country and that definitely brought forward some anxiety. He was also meeting up with Minhyuk that late afternoon and he would be willing to admit that he was feeling a little nervous about it.

So nervous, in fact, he spent at least twenty minutes trying to figure out what he wanted to wear. Eventually he settled for a pair of light-wash jeans, a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and a white graphic tee to wear over it. It took so long to decide that he nearly missed the bus and had to fix his hair on the ride over.

He scowled as he hopped off at the bus stop and pulled out his phone. He didn’t get why he was so nervous about hanging out with someone—young men his age hung out with people all the time, why would he be any different? Maybe it was the fact that throughout the week, he found himself looking forward to seeing a certain blond’s messages pop up on his phone (as dumb as most of them were). Or the fact that before they had decided to make plans, he had felt a bit sad at the idea that they didn’t have class on Saturday or Sunday and he wouldn’t have been able to see that certain someone. _Maybe_ that was why.

Kihyun tongued the inside of his cheek as he pushed away the annoying thoughts. He opened KakaoTalk on his phone to pull up the address of the restaurant that Minhyuk was working at. He glanced at the number on the building next to him on the Main Street of the town and kept walking down it.

After he successfully crossed the street over to the next block, he stopped in front of the small building right next to the stop light, its sign reading: ‘A Little Taste Of Osaka’. Kihyun narrowed his eyes at the fact the ‘o’ in the ‘of’ was capitalized when it shouldn’t be, before glancing at the time on his phone. It was exactly 3:15. He swallowed, his heart thumping a little bit and walked in to the restaurant.

Minhyuk worked at a Japanese restaurant that offered both hibachi grilling along with sushi and other Japanese cuisines. It was run by a Korean family, Minhyuk had told him, and he had been working there since he had started college as a waiter.

As he walked inside the dimly lit area, he saw the restaurant was split into two sections: one side had three hibachi grills across the room while the other side housed multiple small tables and booths along with a sushi bar. He noticed that there were only two customers seated inside and looked rather slow for a Saturday, but maybe it was a bit early for the dinner rush.

He walked further into the waiting area and up to the hostess who was leaning against the podium. She looked as if she was around his age, white, with bright blue hair, gauged ears and an eyebrow piercing. She didn’t look excited to have a someone walking up to her.

“Hibachi or traditional dining?” she asked while yawning before grabbing a menu from underneath the podium.

“Oh, um,” began Kihyun. “I’m meeting my friend who works here—Minhyuk Lee?”

She stared at him for a few seconds before turning away to look in the opposite direction, shoving the menu back under from where she grabbed it. “Min!” she shouted, and Kihyun couldn’t hide his surprise when she soon called into the restaurant in Korean, “Some kid’s here to see you!” Kihyun hid his frown from being called a ‘kid’ in his native language as he heard Minhyuk call back that’d he’d be out in a minute. She slowly turned back to Kihyun and pillowed her chin on her palm. Still in Korean, she said, “You can sit down while you wait if you want. He always takes forever.”

“Thank you,” Kihyun muttered and sat down in a chair farthest away from the podium, the hostess making him feel uncomfortable. If the girl was bothered, she didn’t show it but just looked off into room with a bored stare. He fiddled with his phone as he bounced his knee up and down from his seat as he waited.

A few minutes later, he watched as a familiar blond head jogged over to him and grinned as he waved excitedly at Kihyun. He wasn’t wearing his work clothes which (Kihyun discovered from the multiple selfie’s Minhyuk sent him) normally consisted of a black button up, red tie and black slacks. He was already changed into his street clothes, currently wearing a pair of jeans with so many holes in them Kihyun was surprised they weren’t falling apart, a dark blue sweatshirt and a small bag slung over his shoulder.

“Hey!” the other greeted, still grinning down at Kihyun in his seat. “S’pose I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re the punctual type. Found the place okay?”

“Yeah—this city only has one Main Street. It wasn’t hard to find,” sighed Kihyun, rolling his eyes. Maybe eventually the blond would realize he could manage find his way around without having to have a chaperone, regardless of him not minding the chaperoning for the most part. The red-head stood up and brushed a piece of fuzz from his leg, trying to hide the giddiness that started to creep into his body.

“It’s also the only Japanese Restaurant in town so that helps too,” said Minhyuk off handedly, turning to glance at the blue-haired girl behind him. “I’m heading out, see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be here,” she replied, but Kihyun was pretty sure the restaurant was the last place that this person wanted to be.

“Ready?” Minhyuk asked and Kihyun nodded as he watched the other man rush to the glass door and hold it open for him with a wink. “After you.” The wink made blood rush to Kihyun’s ears, so he hurried out of the door before the blond would have time to notice. Once outside, Minhyk used his longer legs to catch up with him quickly. “Hey, your ears are red,” he commented, shoving his hands into the pocket of his hoodie.

He tugged on his earlobe self-consciously at the comment. “So, how far away is your apartment?” Kihyun asked, dodging the statement as quick as he could, the two making their way down the left-hand side of the block.

“Not far,” Minhyuk chirped happily. “Only about a ten-minute walk. I wanted to stop by the gas station on the way home to get some snacks if that’s okay with you.”

_Dear lord, if he ends up buying ramyun, I swear I’ll jump into oncoming traffic_ , he thought, seeing Hyunwoo’s smug face in his mind’s eye. “Yeah, that sounds fine,” he said and Minhyuk giggled. He snapped his head to look at the other. “What?”

“Nothing,” Minhyuk said, giggling again. He slapped a hand over his mouth when Kihyun narrowed his eyes at him. “Sorry! It’s just that you have a bit of a lisp when you say your S’s and I think it’s really cute.”

Kihyun started making an embarrassed retort when Minhyuk blinked at him and something finally dawned on him. “That’s it!” Kihyun exclaimed, snapping his fingers and feeling like he had solved one of the world’s greatest mysteries. “Your blink!”

Minhyuk blinked again as if on cue. “My blink?” he asked, smile slipping in surprise as he stopped walking. Kihyun followed suite.

“Yeah, you blink your left eye before your right eye!” Kihyun smiled in accomplishment, but then felt instantly awkward as he hadn’t really meant to say any of that out loud. _Shit_. “Uh—I noticed you’re blinking seemed different and I just realized why right now…” he trailed off, trying to salvage his outburst but failing miserably. He bet his ears could be seen from outer space.

Minhyuk tilted his head at the red-head, staring for a moment. Eventually he let out a loud laugh, grin slipping back into place. He leaned forward, getting closer to Kihyun than he was expecting. “That’s pretty observant of you,” he cooed. “Are you saying you like looking at my eyes?”

Kihyun felt his pulse increase at the sudden closeness as he thought how he wanted to respond. After moment of internal struggle, he thought, _Ah, to hell with it_ , and told Minhyuk: “Maybe. Don’t get used to it, though.”

Minhyuk’s eyes widened a bit at the comment but smoothly laughed again, resuming their walk and Kihyun followed. “You realize you’ve said all that in Korean, right? Mister ‘only speak to me in English’,” said Minhyuk.

“Oh.” It was Kihyun’s turn to blink. “My bad,” he said in English and Minhyuk cackled.          

           

☼

 

Eventually the two made it to Minhyuk’s small, two-bedroom apartment after they went to the gas station that his roommate, Hyungwon, worked at. They had fought over who would pay for the ramyun-free snacks and soda, but eventually Minhyuk won out (“Seriously, I made, like, fifty-bucks in tips today, it’s no big deal.”).

They were standing in front of Minhyuk’s door as Kihyun held the bags while Minhyuk fumbled with his keys. After a couple of tries he finally got the right key into the lock and turned it. The blond looked over at Kihyun, his large hand on the doorknob, door still clearly closed. “Just to warn you,” he said sheepishly, chewing on his lip. “It’s a bit messy. I didn’t, uh, have a lot of time to clean today before my shift.”

Kihyun shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, it’s fine.” I mean, how bad could it be?

Bad. It could be really, really bad.

Kihyun felt like he should win an award at the composure he managed to keep when he entered Minhyuk’s apartment. It wasn’t huge, by any means. The area he walked into led directly into a living a room, two large TVs sitting in front of an old couch and coffee table, to the left was an archway that led to a small kitchen.

That was the clean version of what he saw. The carpet looked like it had never been vacuumed (and probably would feel sticky if he walked on it barefoot) and he assumed Minhyuk had never heard of dusting in his entire twenty-two years. There were pieces of clothes strewn about here and there for no apparent reason and he couldn’t tell who they belonged to or how long they had been there. He placed his shoes (neatly) next to Minhyuk’s filthy sneakers in the entrance way that was covered in old, muddy foot prints. Kihyun was a neat freak, he admitted it openly, and he had never wanted to deep clean someone else’s apartment as much as he did in that moment of his existence.

“You can sit down, I’ll make the popcorn,” said Minhyuk, grabbing the bags from Kinhyun’s lax grip and he motioned for him to sit on the sofa, oblivious of his inner turmoil.

Nodding robotically as he walked slowly to the sofa. He eyed it skeptically before deeming that it looked sanitary enough and sat down on the cushion on the left side. He scowled when he felt something sharp bite into his lower back and beyond his better judgement he reached behind him only to pull out a crushed, empty can of Mountain Dew. He tongued the inside of his cheek as he stood up and walked over to the kitchen.

Minhyuk was standing in front of a stove, shaking a weird thin metal pan covered in what looked like tin foil back and forth across a burner. “Hey,” Kihyun said, grabbing the other man’s attention. He held up the can.

“Oh,” Minhyuk’s face fell a little bit at the sight. “I, uh, must have missed that one.”

Kihyun snorted. “Yeah. Do you recycle?”

“Of course! Doesn’t everyone?” Minhyuk nodded eagerly, though Kihyun couldn’t help but notice how his eyes darted around the room at the same rate as he shook the pan back and forth on the stove. “Just put it on the counter—I’ll take care of it later.”

“Okay,” said Kihyun, raising an eyebrow but setting the can on the kitchen counter regardless. “Do you need any help?”

“Nope!” Minhyuk said, making a loud popping sound at the ‘p’. “Just go in and relax. Oh! Could you turn on my PS4 for me? It’s the one on the right.”

“Sure.” Kihyun spun on his heel, back to the filthy living room (at least it smelt like air freshener). He walked over to the TV on the right-hand side with the PS4 on the shelf of the dusty entertainment center. He did his best to ignore the strangely orange dust on the controller he grabbed (he still wiped it on the arm of the couch) and pressed the round button in the middle.

A short while after, Minhyuk brought out a big bowl of popcorn with two bottles of Coke tucked under his arm. “I have popcorn!” He announced, sitting on the couch and setting the bowl and drinks onto the coffee table.

“You play Overwatch?” Kihyun asked, absentmindedly, as he had been scrolling through Minhyuk’s game library. He didn’t have GTA 5.

“I do,” said Minhyuk, sounding more excited than usual, if that was possible. “It’s one of my favorite games right now! Me and Hyungwon play it all the time. Do you play?”

“I’ve tried, but I wasn’t really good at it,” said Kihyun, handing the controller over to Minhyuk, who was sitting closer than he expected he would on the middle cushion. Acting like he didn’t notice, he continued: “I didn’t have any friends at home that played it, so I never got into it. Who do you normally play as?”

“I play as Reaper mostly—the guy that spins in a circle and yells: ‘die, die, die’ like a badass,” he said, opening up a media app on the console.

Kihyun snorted, cracking a smile. “I would have pegged you for a healer.”

Minhyuk turned, looking scandalized. “You’re saying I’m a healer-main? How could you! Well, I suppose it’s better than you saying I’d play Hanzo. Hyungwon normally plays healer when we team up.”

Kihyun hummed quietly to show he was listening. He leaned back, pulling his legs up to sit cross-legged on the couch. “So, what are we watching?” he asked.

“Aladdin!”

“…We’re going to watch a Disney movie?”

“Bet your ass we are!” said Minhyuk, tossing a smile in his direction as he blinked unevenly. “It’s damn near a crime you haven’t seen it, so you aren’t leaving this apartment until you have.” He hit the play button, controller getting tossed half hazard to his side. He then grabbed the bowl of popcorn and shoved it in to sit between Kihyun’s legs. The blond pulled his knees up to his chest and he leaned against Kihyun’s side, as if squishing himself against the red-head was completely normal and grabbed a fist full of popcorn. “It’s going to be _great_.”

Kihyun swallowed as his heart skipped a beat again. _What are you_ , he thought at himself bitterly, _a high school girl_? “Can’t wait,” he managed and shoved his hand into the popcorn bowl too, to give it something to do.

 

Kihyun found out with spending the last week talking to Minhyuk that his positive energy was contagious. It was nearly impossible to be in a bad mood around him and Kihyun found it refreshing. It wasn’t a surprise that even though he was watching a children’s movie he had never wanted to see (even as a kid), he was having a blast, laughing with Minhyuk when he would make a joke and then laughing at him when he would get emotional at certain moments in the movie. The blond continued to be glued to Kihyun’s side even after the popcorn had been demolished and deep down he was glad that he was.

It was about halfway through the movie when Kihyun had turned his head to ask Minhyuk a question, only to find that Minhyuk was looking at him, a few centimeters from his face and his question died on his lips as he muttered a quiet, “Oh” instead.

Minhyuk didn’t turn away and neither did he. He watched as Minhyuk blinked at him, left eye blinking before the right, and then licked his lips. The red-head couldn’t help his eyes darting down to the other’s mouth, following as the pink tongue swiped across. After he was done, Kihyun lifted his eyes to the ones staring across from him.

Minhyuk seemed to be following his movements with great interest as he watched his eyes flicker down, almost shyly. Another second passed, before Kihyun was gifted with a set of damp lips pressed against his own.

He couldn’t help but sit there stagnant in surprise as Minhyuk’s eyes closed and he pressed against him, the blond’s hand reaching across to settle in the space between his crossed legs. He knew that the two of them had been somewhat flirting all day, particularly during the movie, but he couldn’t help but feel shocked that the attractive blond would make a move on him to begin with. His mind was blank, unable to completely process what was going on.

Kihyun must have stayed unresponsive for too long, because his eyes were still open when Minhyuk pulled away from him slowly, chewing on his lip as he looked embarrassed when he finally reopened his eyes.

“Sorry,” Minhyuk said quietly, face still very close—Kihyun could feel his hot breath against his face. He started moving his hand away from the space between Kihyun’s legs as his brown eyes darted around the room, a blush creeping across his cheeks. “I just thought—,” the blond began, but cut the statement short as he bit his lip, seeming for once at a loss for words.

Kihyun felt his breath quicken as he felt a jolt of adrenalin surge. Had he wanted Minhyuk to kiss him? He’d only known him for a week and this was their first time hanging out just the two of them. Is kissing the other man really what he wanted to do?

… _Yes._ Yes, it was.

Before Kihyun could second guess what he was doing, he grabbed the fabric of Minhyuk’s hoodie with force, swiftly moving forward, capturing the blond’s lips with his own. He felt and heard Minhyuk release a surprised ‘ah’ and Kihyun took that moment to sneak his tongue into the parted lips.

The blond moaned quietly in turn, letting his tongue travel against Kihyun’s, tilting his head to the side to deepen the kiss and Kihyun felt a shot of pleasure head south as he let his mouth be explored. Minhyuk leaned into him further, resting his arm back down and lacing his other hand into his thick red hair.

The kiss stayed relatively calm and explorative when finally, Kihyun decided to throw caution to the wind. Minhyuk had clearly been the pursuer since they had met and he decided that he finally wanted to pull his own weight. He parted from the other with a quiet pop and took the moment to sit up more fully on couch, just so he could swing his leg over the blond’s lap, successfully straddling him.

“Wow,” gasped Minhyuk, eyes widening, large hands settling onto Kihyun’s narrow hips reflexively. “I wasn’t expecting you to do that.”

“Shh,” Kihyun muttered, shoving both his hands so they were threaded in Minhyuk’s soft hair on either side and he dove into the other’s open mouth. His tongue licked in and he rolled his hips into the body below him in a fluid motion, the sudden friction causing a jolt of pleasure that he hadn’t realized he was entirely craving.

Minhyuk moaned loudly into his mouth (Kihyun was not surprised at the man being very vocal), hands creeping up to his waist, gripping roughly as hips involuntarily bucked upwards with a clear need for more pressure. Kihyun smirked into the kiss, excitement heightened at the visible reactions under him as he continually rocked into the firm body, hips undulating to elicit more sounds. Minhyuk tasted like Cherry Coke and desperation. It was wonderful and absolutely addicting.

Kihyun eventually let his hands leave the soft hair, slowly letting them slide down. He let them slide over Minhyuk’s shoulders, over his chest and down further to slip under the fabric of his sweatshirt, needing to feel more of the hot skin under his fingertips.

“Ah,” Minhyuk sighed, lips parting for a moment as he panted in his face from lack of air and he let Kihyun’s hands massage over the lean muscle of Minhyuk’s stomach. He was staring up at him with half lidded eyes as his muscles twitched under Kihyun’s touch. Biting down on his lip, Minhyuk moved a hand that had been gripping onto his waist up to slip into the hair at the nape of Kihyun’s neck, only to tug roughly at the strands. The red-head, who had been relatively quiet up until this point, whimpered before he could stop himself.

With a grin, Mihyuk grabbed onto Kihyun’s waist with both hands again and shifted them to the side, shoving Kihyun’s body so his back hit the cushions of the couch, the taller man settling between his bent knees. Still grinning cheekily, the blond shifted forward, his chest sliding against Kihyun’s as he settled on top of him, face moving in close again.

The blond was driving him mad. Kihyun licked his lips, throwing his arms around the slightly broader shoulders and pulled Minhyuk in to kiss him again. He felt their teeth clash from the urgency, but it didn’t stop him from messily tangling his tongue with the other, jeans starting to feel uncomfortably tight in his groin. He was so incredibly turned on from just _kissing_ the other man, it was absolutely unreal.

Minhyuk moved his lips away as he started kissing over Kihyun’s chin, down his jaw to settle into the crook of his neck only to have Minhyuk gently suck and lick at the flesh that was under his mouth. Kihyun groaned, moving his hand into the blond hair and craning his neck to the side to give the other more room to explore. It felt _amazing_. He could feel his body begin to flush as his neck was assaulted, Minhyuk biting gently at the flesh and tugging at it with his teeth, before soothing over the skin with his tongue only to repeat the process over again. He felt his eyes slip completely shut as he enjoyed the gentle roughness of the other’s mouth against his skin. Unaware, he let out a breathy moan—he never wanted it to stop.

“ _I can show you the world. Shining, shimmering, splendid. Tell me, Princess--._ ”

Minhyuk’s mouth detached from his neck as he shot his head up. “Oh, this is my favorite part!” exclaimed Minhyuk, mouth forming into an ‘o’, lifting his body up to sit back on his knees between Kihyun’s spread legs. He turned to the television which Kihyun had all but forgotten about, staring at it like he hadn’t _just_ been pressing another body against his incredibly old sofa.

“What?” Kihyun asked, in complete disbelief.

“The song!” Minhyuk urged, flapping his arms around—he wasn’t even looking at Kihyun. “It’s my favorite Disney song! Shush.”

His mind felt like it was going to explode. Did Minhyuk just fucking _shush_ him? Kihyun tongued the inside of his cheek as he glanced down, unable to miss the obvious bulge that the taller man was sporting in his pants. Evidently, Minhyuk’s state of arousal was not swayed by a fucking children’s movie, but it could be paused to watch one.

“ _A whole new woooooooorld. A new fantastic point of view—_.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

The words flew out of Kinhyun’s mouth and Minhyuk swung his head around to look at him in surprise, eyebrows raising to his hairline. Thinking that the other was about to apologize for trying to ruin Kihyun’s boner, the blond suddenly hit him with this:

“Woah, you swore.”

Kihyun eyes went instantly wide, utterly dumbfounded. Gritting his teeth, he reached forward, grabbing Minhyuk’s hoodie with all his strength to aggressively pull the man back down, crashing their chests together. He looked unblinkingly into the other’s surprised face, noses nearly touching.

“If you do that again, I will fucking _end you_ ,” Kihyun whispered, eyes narrowing dangerously, lips only a centimeter apart from Minhyuk’s slack-jawed mouth. “Do you get me?”

Kihyun watched Minhyuk’s face go through a myriad of different expressions. First shock, then disbelief before his mouth fell into a slow smile, tongue reaching out to lick slowly at his swollen lips.

“I think I want you to ‘fucking end me’ if you keep looking at me like that,” Minhyuk cooed, taking his hand to let it trail up Kihyun’s calf, up his thigh and settled on his lap. “Sorry, where were we, again?”

Kihyun rolled his eyes, before crushing Minhyuk’s mouth with his own.

Minhyuk was better when he didn’t talk anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got the writing bug so I posted a bit earlier than I thought I would. Hope it's okay! Any feedback is greatly appreciated!!


	3. Wonder by Wonder

Kihyun inhaled deeply through his nose as he woke up. He slowly opened his almond shaped eyes as he looked up, trying to get his bearings. He blinked a few times, consciousness finally starting to sink in as he realized he wasn’t looking at the ceiling of his dorm room. He lifted his head up and looked around as it dawned on him that he was still on Minhyuk’s couch in his apartment, the lean man’s body draped over him, fast asleep.

It was dark in the room, the only light source coming from the television screen which was currently open on Netflix, the app politely asking, ‘Are you still watching “Forensic Files”?’. His head dropped back to the cushion as he tried to remember what had happened. They met up and went over Minhyuk’s, they ate popcorn, watched a movie…

And made out on the sofa for about two hours.

He felt himself blush as images rushed back into his mind. They had still kept their clothes on, but it was a pretty intense make out session. This type of situation was _really_ out of character for him—it normally took a few months for him to warm up to someone, even platonically, and longer to get remotely intimate on top of that. For him to be laying here (with someone sleeping on top of him, no less) after what had transpired there was something just short of a miracle.

He glanced down to the body on top of him. Minhyuk had his eyes closed, face completely relaxed as it used his chest as a pillow, one of his large hands resting near his face, the other hanging off the sofa. His pink lips parted slightly as he breathed rhythmically in his slumber. He looked beautiful.

There was just something about Minhyuk that Kihyun really liked. He helped Kihyun lower his guard and open him up more than he normally would be willing to do in such a short amount of time. It was refreshing and exciting…but also scary.

Shaking his head to push out his thoughts, he looked to the floor where he recalled setting his phone and reached out his arm, moving slowly as to not disturb the sleeping form resting against him. He managed to grab the device and he clicked the button on its side to see the time. It was a quarter after midnight.

Kihyun groaned internally. The last bus would have left at 9—he was going to have to walk home.

“Minhyuk,” he said quietly, lightly touching the blond’s chin, “you need to move. I should go home.” Minhyuk hummed at the sound of his name, smacked his lips and rubbed his cheek further into his chest, otherwise not budging. Kihyun closed his eyes and bit his lip, collecting himself (at the same time refusing to admit how God damn adorable that was). He looked back to the face and realized that Minhyuk was out cold and he probably wasn’t going to be able to get him to move.

It took a few minutes, but he managed to slide from underneath the warm body without waking him, Minhyuk merely mumbled something that he didn’t catch before rolling over and facing the back of the couch. Kihyun quietly walked from the living room to the entranceway to slip on his shoes, fighting against the urge to place all the other pairs neatly in a line that were scattered on the floor.

He slipped his phone into his back pocket as he reached for the door handle only to jump back in surprise when the door unexpectedly swung open, revealing the tall frame of the Korea Club’s president, Hyungwon.

Hyungwon’s huge eyes widened somewhat in surprise. “Oh,” he said, clearly not expecting to see Kihyun. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Kihyun managed. Hyungwon stared at him. He stared back. It took him a second to recollect that Hyungwon also lived there and had been working at the gas station up until this point.

“You’re still here,” said Hyungwon, effectively breaking the silence. His tone sat somewhere between bored and disbelief. “That’s impressive.”

“Yeah,” said Kihyun, feeling incredibly awkward all of a sudden and wanting to vacate as soon as possible. However, Hyungwon kept standing in front of the doorway, taking up a surprising amount of space considering how skinny he was.

The tall boy sucked his thick lips into his mouth as he nodded his head at Kihyun. The redhead watched Hyungwon’s eyes travel from his own, down to settle somewhere near his neck and stayed there for a moment before slowly creeping back up. The black haired man released his lips and raised an eyebrow. “Have fun?” he finally asked, the corner of his mouth twitching.

He raised an eyebrow back at him. “It was okay,” said Kihyun. What was with the look he was giving him? “I should head home though, so if you could move,” he motioned with his hand at Hyungwon.

Hyungwon raised both his eyebrows this time before taking a step back and turning to the side, making enough room for Kihyun to pass through, which he did immediately.

“Have a good night,” Kihyun muttered, walking past, wanting to free himself from the awkward air.

“Hey, Kihyun!”

He stopped at the sound of his name and begrudgingly turned around to find Hyungwon still holding onto the knob of the door, looking at him with his head tilted to the side.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Does your dorm have a mini-fridge?”         

_What?_ The redhead bobbed his head back in confusion. “Yes, why?”

Hyungwon ignored his question and asked further: “Does it have a freezer?” Kihyun nodded his head slowly, not understanding why he would be asking him such a random question. The black haired man snapped his fingers and pointed at him. “Perfect—put a spoon in there. Have a good night,” he finished, walking into the apartment and closing the door behind him.  

Kihyun stood in the hallway, completely confused. _Why in the hell would I put a spoon in a freezer?_ He thought to himself. Shaking his head, he turned back around and walked down the hall to make his way out of the apartment complex.

He took a step outside into the crisp and clean night air. Looking up, the sky was clear and a crescent moon could be seen brightly shining down on him. It was going to be at least a thirty-minute walk to get back to his dorm, but at least it would be a pleasant night to do it. He stretched his arms above his head before starting his walk home.

A few minutes in, a thought popped into his head. Minhyuk seemed like the type of person who would be bothered by someone not saying goodbye when they left, regardless of whether he was sleeping or not. He reached into his back pocket to get his phone, opening up KakaoTalk and his conversation with Minhyuk. He typed a quick message and sent it off, a smile settling in on his face and staying there until he made it back to his dorm.

 

☼

 

Minhyuk woke up when the sun from outside the living room windows became too bright and his old curtains weren’t nice enough to block it out any longer. He released a groan, sitting up from the couch, blond hair sticking up from one side as he continued to keep his eyes closed. There was a vague pain in his back from sleeping on the couch all night and he reached his hand behind himself to try and massage it away.

After giving up, he moved his hand back to let it fall limp in his lap and finally opened his eyes. He was staring at the blank wall of his living room and he was also the only person occupying the couch—Kihyun must have left sometime during the night. He pouted a bit, liking the idea of waking up with another person cuddled next to him (particular one that was short with red hair), but there wasn’t anything he could do about that.

The pout soon changed into a small smile as he remembered how the evening went. He hadn’t been expecting to kiss the other boy—he hadn’t even been completely sure if he was gay, but when he had saw the redhead turn towards him, face only inches away from his, his body had done the thinking for him and he kissed the other.

Thankfully, he didn’t get punched or kicked in the face from doing it and Kihyun ended up being _really_ responsive (if not a bit aggressive, which was hot). It was _great_. Then they made out on his awful couch from Goodwill for a couple hours before falling asleep, watching Forensic Files.

“Awesome,” he said to himself, grinning at the empty room. Continuing to reminisce over the night’s events, he looked around to see if he could find his phone. He found it stuck between the couch cushions next to a very old potato chip. He grabbed the phone, the chip stayed.

He lit up his screen and saw he had a message from Kihyun, which made him raise his eyebrows in surprise. Kihyun _never_ messaged him first and would only reply after Minhyuk had sent him multiple messages in a row. Excited, he opened the message and read it.

<Kihyun: Hey. You were asleep and I didn’t want to wake you up when I left. I had fun. Talk to you later.>

Minhyuk’s chest instantly filled with warmth as he reread the message more times then was necessary. Still smiling he typed back:

<Minhyuk: good morning!!! (three sun emojis)>

<Kihyun: sorry i fell asleep>

<Minhyuk: i had so much fun last night (cat rolling around with a ball of yarn sticker, Ryan dancing the hula sticker)>

Feeling very giddy, he hopped up from the couch, stretching his long arms above his head. He glanced at the time on his phone and saw that it was a bit past noon. Feeling very excited and wanting to share it with someone, he skipped out of the living room, down the hallway to Hyungwon’s bedroom.

He opened the door and was met with the familiar sound of a tornado siren screaming through the room. Hyungwon, unsurprisingly, was sleeping undisturbed on his bed. In too good of a mood to complain, he quickly spotted the robotic alarm clock next to a pair of Hungwon’s underwear and turned it off.

He hopped over to the bed and slid under the three blankets his friend had been buried under and snuggled up to his back. He pressed his chest up against the other and snaked an arm over his side. The body shifted.

“…Can I help you?” Hyungwon muttered.

Minhyuk blinked in surprise. “Oh, you were actually awake?”

“Define ‘awake’.”

Minhyuk couldn’t help but narrow his eyes, resting his chin against the back of the tall boy’s neck and pinching his side. “When you wake up you’re supposed to turn off your alarm, dumb ass. What’s the point of setting it if you can’t get off your ass to turn the thing off?”

“Don’t tell me how to live my life,” drawled Hyungwon, releasing a yawn. He scooted back a little further into Minhyuk’s embrace, pulling the blanket further over his shoulder. “What’s up? You only come to cuddle if you’re really sad or really happy.”

Minhyuk grinned against the other’s neck, giggling a bit as he squeezed the other’s thin frame. “Last night was really fun,” he said.

“Neat. Did you bang?” 

“No, but we made out for, like, a million hours,” gushed Minhyuk, nuzzling his face into the back. “There was also dry humping. It was _awesome_.”

Hyungwon barked out a laugh. “Wow, dry humping? You slut.”

Minhyuk slapped lightly at Hyungwon’s stomach. “Shut up,” he laughed. “Since when is dry humping slutty? We kept our clothes on.”

“I’m just messing with you,” said Hyungwon, turning onto his side so him and Minhyuk were now looking at one another, sharing a pillow. “I’m glad you had fun.”

The blond gave him a blinding smile. “He told me he had fun too—he even messaged me after he left to tell me! How cute is that?”

The black haired boy rolled his eyes. “You sound like a teenaged girl,” he said, scrunching up his nose shortly after. “You didn’t brush your teeth before you came in here, did you? Your breath smells like it was gang-banged by a sewer.”

Minhyuk narrowed his eyes. “And yours smells like you blew a toilet, but I love you anyway.”

“Wow,” Hyungwon deadpanned. “Your kindness is only outweighed by your incredibly poetic words.”

“True,” he quipped back. He heard his phone vibrate from the spot he had sat it down on the bed. He fished behind himself frantically to grab at it. “Oh, that could be Kihyun!”

“Jesus Christ, you _are_ a teenaged girl,” Hyungwon groaned, flipping to his back and throwing an arm over his eyes, releasing another yawn. “It’s gross, by the way. Just so you know.”

Minhyuk ignored him as he moved the phone so he could see the screen. He grinned excitedly. It _was_ Kihyun—not only that, but it was _two_ messages from the redheaded boy. What was it, his birthday? He flipped onto his back, opening the messages immediately.

<Kihyun: Care to explain this.>

The message was preceded by a picture of Kihyun’s nape and shoulder, which was clearly sporting a large, purple hickey roughly the size of a half-dollar right above where his shirt collar would rest. He stared at the picture intently, thinking how nice Kihyun’s collarbones looked before he bit his lip as he started laughing to himself. His fingers typed a message at lightning speed.

<Minhyuk: heehee whoops (monkey covering its mouth emoji)>

<Minhyuk: hey if you look at it from the side it kinda looks like a heart!!!!>

<Minhyuk: super cute (Ryan wiggling his butt sticker)>

To his surprise, a message was typed back to him instantly.

<Kihyun: Whoops? Are you serious? It’s not cute! How am I supposed to hide this tomorrow?>

“Oh, that definitely looks worse than it did last night,” commented Hyungwon from his side of the bed.

The blond glanced over to him, quirking an eyebrow. “How would you know?”

“He was leaving when I was coming home from the gas station,” said Hyungwon, popping his chin on Minhyuk’s shoulder as he read over the messages. “It was sort of hard to miss. Nice work.”

“Thank you,” Minhyuk beamed, turning back to his phone to type another response.

<Minhyuk: oh dont worry its not like youre the only person out there with a hickey silly>

<Minhyuk: just stick a metal spoon in the freezer and use it on it youll be just fine (five smiling emojis)>

<Kihyun: How is a cold spoon supposed to help me?>

<Minhyuk: you press it against the bruise to break the blood vessels and to reduce swelling duh>

<Minhyuk: Kihyun>

<Minhyuk: have you never had a hickey before??>

<Kihyun: I’m taking a nap.>

“He’s sort of innocent, huh?” asked Hyungwon. “I told him to use a spoon too, but he looked really confused.”

Minhyuk tilted his head in thought. “I don’t know about innocent. I mean, he grinded against my dick like he knew what he was doing. Maybe the spoon trick is an American thing?”

“Ew, I did _not_ need the details, thanks,” muttered Hyungwon, finally extracting himself from the bed. “Well, whatever. What time do you work today?”

“I work three to close,” said Minhyuk chewing on his lip as he stared at the picture of Kihyun’s neck intently. He wanted to make it Kihyun’s contact picture on his phone. Was that bad?

“Great, so you can make us pancakes? It’s Sunday— _pancake_ -Sunday..”

Minhyuk laughed, pulling off the blankets and crawling out of Hyungwon’s bed as well. “I s’pose I can make us pancakes. Only if you bring me a slushie after your shift, though.”

“Deal,” said Hyungwon, walking out of the bedroom and heading towards the bathroom.

Minhyuk followed him out and headed towards the kitchen, typing a response back to Kihyun as he walked.

<Minhyuk: dont be mad ill make it up to you!>

<Minhyuk: you can give me a hickey the size of texas if you want i will wear it like a badge of honor (American flag emoji, followed by a cat saluting sticker)>

Chuckling to himself, he set his phone on the counter once he made it into the kitchen and opened the cupboard to grab out the box of pancake mix. He sat it down near the stove and went over to the fridge to grab the milk when he was surprised by his phone vibrating against the counter. He _really_ didn’t think that Kihyun would have responded to the last message. Curious, he swiped across on his phone to pull open it.

<Kihyun: I’ll hold you to that.>

 

☼

 

Minhyuk sighed loudly as he leaned against the table of the booth he was sitting in. He was at work and it was after the dinner rush which hadn’t been that busy on account it was the slowest day of the week. There were currently no customers in the restaurant and Minhyuk was supposed to be busying himself with folding the cloth napkins into fancy looking flowers, but he couldn’t bring himself to. He sighed again, blowing a piece of blond hair out of his face as he rested his chin on his palm.

Kihyun hadn’t messaged him in four hours, even though Minhyuk kept pestering the other boy, but it was fruitless. He pouted his lips, sad that the next time he would see the redhead would be Monday and it would probably only be in passing.

Minhyuk reached for his phone in the pocket of his black slacks and pulled it out to open KakaoTalk. He typed a quick message in Kihyun’s chat.

<Minhyuk: hows the hickey?? (grinning emoji)>

He hit send. Maybe _that_ would get a rise out of the other boy. He set his phone on the wooden table and tapped his fingers on his cheek. Minhyuk was _terrible_ at waiting patiently for anything and Kihyun was definitely no exception.

A few moments later, he heard a distinct ‘ding’ of the bell from the front door. He leaned his body out of the booth, looking towards the front of the restaurant. A stalky body dressed in a baggy shirt and shorts popped in through the waiting area, hair a ridiculous bright orange sitting on top of a very childish looking face with dimples.

“Oh, Jooheon,” said Minhyuk, waving at the other boy.

Jooheon raised his head, narrow eyes falling on Minhyuk’s as he smiled at him, dimples setting deep into his cheeks and on full display. He tucked his banged-up skateboard he had been holding under his arm and walked over to the blond, a pair of dirty Vans dragging across the carpet.

“Hey Min, you look busy,” Jooheon joked, still smiling. Minhyuk noticed that the younger boy had a lime green band-aid on his right cheek.

“Hey, Honey. What did you do this time?” asked Minhyuk, poking at the band aid when Jooheon sat across from him in the booth. The orange haired boy winced at the prodding.

“Ow! Careful, that really hurts,” he pouted, rubbing his finger gingerly over the band-aid. “I did an Impossible over a set of stairs yesterday,” Jooheon answered. He lifted his right arm to show Minhyuk his forearm that sported a large and painful looking road burn with a couple of other lime green strips scattered on it half hazardly. “Well, I tried to, anyway. I fell when I landed and the ground won.”

The blond shook his head. “Does falling on the ground make you better at skateboarding? ‘Cause if it did, you’d be a pro by now.”

Jooheon pouted even harder. “Hey, that’s mean! I’m getting better—do you know how hard it is to do an Impossible in the first place?!”

“Lemme guess—pretty close to impossible, right?” he replied, tilting his head and smiling sweetly at Jooheon who only glared at him in response. Minhyuk looked at his phone to see if Kihyun had responded to him. He hadn’t. “What are you up to, anyway? I thought you were off today.”

“I am,” said Jooheon. A little Taste of Osaka was run by Jooheon’s Aunt and Uncle and he happened to be the delivery-boy. “I just got bored so I thought I would swing by,” he said absently, grabbing one of the ruby napkins from the table and began folding it absently.

Minhyuk hummed in response. “Did Changkyun kick you out of the apartment again?”

Jooheon scowled, tossing a messy looking napkin flower to the table. “He said I was being too noisy while he was studying. It’s only the second week of the semester—who studies this early, anyway?”

Definitely not Minhyuk, that’s for sure. “You’re just huffy that he called you noisy,” said Minhyuk offhandedly. He glanced at his phone again—still no messages.

“Do _not_ call me ‘huffy’, Min,” Jooheon whined, slapping his hand on the table. “You know I hate that word.”

“But you _are_ huffy,” cooed Minhyuk, reaching out a hand to use his pointer finger to poke one of Jooheon’s adorable dimples. “You’re the poster child for the word ‘huffy’. Like, I could put a picture of your face in the dictionary instead of the word and people would just know what it is,” he continued, finishing his explanation by pinching Jooheon’s plump cheeks. They were so _squishy_.

“Stop it!” The orange-hair boy slapped his hand away. “Quit manhandling me. Why do you keep looking at your phone? Expecting someone?”

“Huh?” Minhyuk said as he looked up from the aforementioned device.

“You’ve looked at it at least three times since I sat down here,” said Jooheon, raising his hand to play with the edge of the band aid on his face. “Which is rude, by the way.”

Minhyuk pressed his lips into a thin line, wishing that a magic genie with the voice of Robin Williams would appear to grant his wish to have Kihyun just fucking _text him back_. “I met someone,” he said, watching Jooheon’s mouth form into an ‘o’ at the statement.

“You did? Who?” he asked, leaning forward with a grin, excited. The face faltered for a moment before he added: “Wait, is it another guy from Grindr? That ended really bad for you last time, Minnie.”

The blond narrowed his eyes a little bit as his eyebrow twitched. “How did you even hear about that?”

“Hyungwon told me, duh.”

“That gossipy bitch,” Minhyuk hissed under his breath. “ _No_ , I did not meet him on Grindr—I deleted that stupid app months ago. He’s one of the international students that transferred this year.”

“ _Oh_ ,” said Jooheon, instantly excited again. “Is he exotic?”

Minhyuk quirked an eyebrow. “He’s from Seoul.”

“Oh.” Jooheon’s excitement visibly deflating. “Well, that’s boring—ow, ow, _ow_ don’t slap me!”

“He isn’t boring, he’s really smart and funny and super cute, you little bastard,” he said, slapping the other’s arm each time he listed another quality. “So, shut your face.”

“Ow!” Jooheon whined, pulling his abused arm towards himself and rubbing it tenderly as he looked dejectedly across the booth. “You’re so fucking violent!”

“Don’t swear, it’s unbecoming.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” Jooheon mumbled, pouting once again and still rubbing his arm. “Do you like this guy, then?”

The blond felt his chest fill with warmth at the question, a picture of Kihyun’s smiling face settling in his mind. He slid his arms onto the table, resting his chin on the back of his hands as he looked at Jooheon. “I’m still getting to know him—we haven’t been talking for very long yet, but…” he trailed off, a smile slowly creeping across his face.

Jooheon slid forward and mirrored Minhyuk’s pose, the two of them looking at each other from the same height, chins on their hands. “Sounds like you’re a smitten,” he said, face grinning at Minhyuk, all dimples.

Minhyuk grinned back, moving a hand so he could tap Jooheon’s nose with his finger. “Smitten like a kitten.” He watched as the other opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the sound of Minhyuk’s phone vibrating noisily on the hard wood table. He shot up in his seat as he squealed, flapping his hands in excitement. “That must be him!”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about liking the guy.” He heard the younger boy say, but he was too thrilled to make a comment. He opened the message in KakaoTalk like a child opening a present from Santa Claus on Christmas day.

<Kihyun: Shut up about the hickey already…And for your information it stings, thanks.>

Minhyuk snickered a bit, getting the rise out of the other boy like he had wanted. He bit the tip of his tongue as he sent a message back.

<Minhyuk: aaaawww i’m sorry (cat rolling around on the ground sticker) did you use the spoon like a told you?>

<Kihyun: I tried, but it didn’t do anything. I figured you just told me that to make fun of me.>

<Minhyuk: you wound me!!! i would never do that (six crying face emojis)>

<Minhyuk: you probably arent doing it right>

<Minhyuk: want me to come show you how>

He hit send on his last message and his chest filled with sudden urge to see the other boy, but he knew that the chances of Kihyun agreeing were one of two close friends: slim and none. Minhyuk groaned as he collapsed onto the table, his head hitting the surface with a loud thump.

“Woah, you okay over there?” asked Jooheon somewhere above him as he felt the younger boy poke the top of his head.

“I want to go and see him,” he talked into the table. He heard his phone vibrate and he slid it over, lifting his head just high enough so he could see the screen.

<Kihyun: Yeah, sure.>

_Oh my God, he said yes?_ Minhyuk sprang up in his seat, his sudden movement jarring the boy sitting across from him. Minhyuk arranged his face into his sweetest smile. “Jooheon, would you do me a _huge_ favor?”

Jooheon rolled his eyes as he grumbled in the back of his throat. “Yeah, get going. I’ll clock you out when your shift is done.”

Minhyuk jumped out of the booth to swing his body to the other side. He enveloped the younger boy in a hug before pressing a kiss to his forehead. “You’re the best!” he exclaimed as he parted.

Jooheon’s face turned a pleasant shade of fuchsia as he batted Minhyuk away, very much embarrassed. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Now, go.”

Minhyuk grinned as he rushed out of the restaurant, and his rushing looked an awful lot like skipping.

 

☼

 

Kihyun itched absently at a spot of his neck, face soon wincing as his finger rubbed over a sensitive area. He glowered as he grabbed the mirror from his desk where he was sitting, positioning the mirror to look at the left side of his neck. The large purple bruise stared back at him for the hundredth time in the reflection.

It didn’t help that the spot _really_ stung, but he couldn’t stop looking at the damn thing. Every time he thought that he had forgotten about it, the thought would pop up in his head to check if it was still there. Then he had to deal with the onslaught of images that would pop up in his head on how the mark had gotten there to begin with.

He sighed through his nose as he grabbed his phone which had gone off a little while ago. Not surprisingly, a message from Minhyuk sat in his notifications.

<Minhyuk: hows the hickey?? (grinning emoji)>

The redhead glared at the message, tonguing the inside of his cheek. He was bringing up the mark on his neck enough in his own head, he didn’t need the other man to keep mentioning it too. The next few minutes were spent messaging back and forth before Minhyuk, who was obviously making fun of him, asked if he wanted him to come over so he could help him treat his affliction. He had rolled his eyes and sent back a sarcastic, “Yeah, sure,” before tossing his phone to the side.

He stared at the black print of his text book, trying to absorb its words, but his brain falling short on focusing when his phone went off again. Sighing, he looked at the message Minhyuk sent him.

<Minhyuk: okay!!!! (3 sun emojis) see you in 15>

Kihyun balked at the message. Had the other man thought he was serious? His response, he thought, had been obviously sarcastic. He started to panic, contemplating on telling Minhyuk that he had misunderstood his message, but shaking the idea shortly after. He could clearly see the blond being crestfallen at him backtracking, and making the other sad was the last thing he wanted to do.

He jumped from his desk chair. Minhyuk was coming over to his dorm. _Oh, no_.

“‘Oh, no’ what?”

Kihyun jumped again at the sound. Hyunwoo was looking at him curiously from his seat at his own desk, eyebrows raised expectantly in Kihyun’s direction. He had forgotten about Hyunwoo being in the room.

“Minhyuk’s coming over,” he whispered, almond eyes going wide as he began to pace the short length of their dorm. “I didn’t mean to invite him over, but now he’s coming over. Oh, no.”

“And that’s…bad?” asked Hyunwoo, furrowing his eyebrows and looking rather confused.

“I’m _embarrassed_ , hyung,” Kihyun hissed at him, still pacing.

“Why are your embarrassed?” Hyunwoo stared at him as the redhead went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

He hadn’t completely processed the fact that him and Minhyuk had kissed (made out, rather), and he wasn’t sure he was ready to come to terms with it yet. He far from regretted it, it had actually been really nice, but the fact that he felt that way was causing anxiety and he was having trouble wrapping his head around it. He had hooked up with a few guys in the past, but that’s all it was: a hookup—he never talked to the guys again. He was pretty sure he liked Minhyuk and _that_ was embarrassing.

“I just am, okay?” he replied finally to Hyunwoo. “I was preparing myself to see him tomorrow and now I’m seeing him tonight instead.”

“When is he coming over?” asked Hyunwoo, his calmness annoying Kihyun.

“In fifteen-minutes!”

“Well, better cope with it then,” said Hyunwoo, simply. The older man stood up, grabbing his gym bag from its place on the floor, near his desk. He swung it over his broad shoulder. “Have fun, I’m going to go work out. I don’t feel like being around for round two.”

“You’re _leaving_?” seethed Kihyun, finally stopping his rapid pacing. “Wait, what do you mean by round two?” he asked. Hyunwoo made a motion towards Kihyun’s neck and the red-head slapped a hand over it, ears turning red. “There’s not going to be a round two!” he hissed.

He watched as the man turned around and went towards the door. He opened it, and said to Kihyun over his shoulder. “If you don’t want round two, I would put some pants on. Be back later.”

Kihyun watched as the door closed before glancing down at his bare legs. He had been wearing his normal sleeping attire, an over-sized white t-shirt with a pair of boxer briefs underneath. He rushed over to his closet to try and find a decent pair of pants as quickly as he could. He had managed to find a pair of clean, grey sweatpants and had flung them onto his legs when he heard a quiet knock on the door.

He walked over to it and stood for a moment, taking a couple of quick, but deep breaths before he hesitantly opened the door.

“Hi!” Minhyuk’s smiling face beamed at him like the sun incarnate as he raised both his hands in a wave. He was clad in his waiter’s uniform, a form fitting black button down sitting close to his thin frame, red tie around his neck and black dress pants. “Enjoying the view?” he asked him, walking past and inviting himself into the dorm room.

Kihyun blinked, trying to ignore the fact that he had been caught checking the other man out. “Just invite yourself in, why don’t you,” he muttered as he quietly closed the door, ignoring Minhyuk’s question.

“Don’t mind if I do,” chirped Minhyuk. He turned around to find the other standing in the middle of the room, the area’s brightness level having seemed to increase from fifty to hundred-percent with the presence of the blond. 

“You never came off as someone who would know good etiquette,” said Kihyun, offhandedly, standing awkwardly by the door and tugging on the hem of his shirt absently. He didn’t know what to do with himself.

“Ouch,” laughed Minhyuk, not seeming bothered by the jab at all. The blond head craned around the room, seeming to try and take in all the small room had to offer. “Wow,” he said eventually, looking from Kihyun’s side of the room to Hyunwoo’s. “It’s… _super_ clean in here.”

“Yeah.” Kihyun tugged on his ear. Trying to shake off his own awkwardness he slipped around Minhyuk so he could sit at his desk. He sat down in his chair and tapped his fingers on the desk.  “I like keeping things neat,” he said eventually. He thought sitting at his desk would make him feel less awkward. It didn’t.

Minhyuk hummed, blinking unevenly at his surroundings as Kihyun watched him. He looked at Kihyun’s lofted bed for a while, before looking down at Kihyun, eyes widening in realization. “Oh, that’s right!” he said, hitting his fist on his palm. He grinned, walking the two steps over to Kihyun’s sitting position. “Let’s take a look at that neck of yours.”

“Oh, I—,” Kihyun tried to stop the other before a pair of big hands were on his shoulder, swiveling his chair so the blond could fully see the left side of his neck. He meant to object, but as the taller boy leaned over him, attractive face and pursed lips _incredibly_ close to his, his voice caught in his throat.

“Hmm,” hummed Minhyuk, tilting his head as he used his pointer finger to lower his shirt collar a bit, looking very serious. He used his thumb to lightly touch the mark and Kihyun hissed at the sudden touch and heart pounding. “Baby,” Minhyuk cooed, smiling a bit. He stayed there for a minute, before standing back up, looking down at Kihyun with his head tilted. “It’s not _that_ bad.”

Finding his voice, Kihyun snorted, tugging on his ears that felt warm to his touch. “Yeah, says the one who _doesn’t_ have a tomato on his neck.”

“Not a tomato—tomatoes are red,” said Minhyuk, offhandedly, craning his neck around the room again. His eyes eventually fell on the black mini-fridge that sat under Hyunwoo’s bunk. “It’s more purple, so, more like a plum? That sounds about right. Do you still have a spoon in the freezer?”

The redhead couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Tomato, plum, whatever, doesn’t make a difference,” he mumbled, watching the lean frame walk over to the mini-fridge to squat down in front to open the door, digging around in it for a moment. “It doesn’t matter, it won’t work, anyway.”

Minhyuk scoffed, standing back up a moment later and turning around, the metal spoon Kihyun had shoved angrily back into the freezer compartment in his hand. “I told you that you probably weren’t doing it right.” He grabbed Hyunwoo’s desk chair and slid it across the floor, stopping it right next to Kihyun’s. The blond plopped down. “Let a master do it.”

Kihyun bobbed his head back as his chair was spun again, now fully facing the other man. “What do you mean by a ‘master’?” he asked, brain not processing things at a fast enough speed to come up with another reply.

“Let’s just say I’ve dealt with my fair share of hickeys,” Minhyuk quipped, biting down on his lip in concentration and raising the spoon. He scooted a little closer, tugging Kihyun’s baggy sleeve so it’s slipped down his shoulder, exposing more of his neck.

“Hey!”

“Shush,” said Minhyuk quietly, raising the rounded end of the spoon and leaning forward, pressing the freezing cold metal flush against the large bruise. Kihyun hissed, wincing at the temperature and the sudden stinging sensation and Minhyuk’s brown eyes glanced at him. “Baby,” he said again, smiling. His face was sitting only centimeters away him—Kihyun could see every one of his long eyelashes when he looked down and how Minhyuk’s pink lips parted in concentration.

“Don’t call me a ‘baby’,” glowered Kihyun. If his ears weren’t red before, he was positive they were now. The close proximity made his already fast beating heart speed up further, pulse now thumping in his ears. He tried to look anywhere else in his dorm, but his eyes kept falling on the face in front of him. His skin must have warmed up the spoon marginally as the coldness felt more tolerable as Minhyuk rubbed the spoon in firm circles on his neck. The touch felt very gentle, large hands having a soothing effect that Kihyun had to force himself not to lean into.

They stayed quiet for some time, which caught Kihyun a bit by surprise. Besides for when they had been kissing, Minhyuk was almost always a constant hum of words but at that moment the only noise in the room was the sound of their breathing. Even though the silence was different, it was also comfortable and Kihyun felt like being the one to break the quiet moment would have ruined something. What, he wasn’t sure, but he kept his mouth shut regardless, enjoying the closeness of the other. Eventually, the silence was broken.

“Sorry,” Minhyuk muttered.

“Huh?” Kihyun blinked at the other’s statement, eyes connecting.

“About the hickey,” said Minhyuk quietly, a faint pink on his cheeks. He lifted the spoon, moving it over a little before pressing it down again, followed by more soothing circles. “I know how annoying they are, so…Sorry for being careless.”

Minhyuk was speaking very softly, tone so different from his normal boisterous voice. Kihyun felt his eyes soften a bit. “It’s not a big deal,” he replied finally, glancing off to the side and focusing on the pencil holder shaped like a bear sitting on Hyunwoo’s desk. Swallowing his embarrassment and former feelings of anxiety, he spoke up. “Just make sure its not visible next time.”

He looked back and saw the blond’s face was smiling at him, looking like he wanted to laugh but diligently holding it in—the flush on his face a bit deeper now. He leaned in further, his breath hitting Kihyun’s lips as he spoke. “I can do that,” he murmured softly, before adding: “Your ears are red.”

“So is your face,” said Kihyun, equally as soft to which Minhyuk finally let out a quiet laugh. He stayed still as Minhyuk raised his other hand, letting it sit on the other side of his neck as he leaned forward, pressing his lips against his own and Kihyun sighed at the feeling.

Maybe kissing wasn’t a big deal after all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any feedback is always appreciated!! I hope this is at least entertaining :D Smut is in the next chapter, just a warning.


	4. Over, Sideways and Under

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys spend some quality time in Minhyuk's room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: There be smut in this chapter!

The next month flew by. Kihyun’s classes started picking up and he found himself getting busier. In turn, he was finally feeling like he was settling into American life much easier now and he didn’t feel as uncomfortable anymore. He felt like it was easier for him to laugh openly, make jokes and show more of himself to the people around him and not coming off as simply the shy, foreign student.

He would be lying to say that Minhyuk didn’t have a huge part in that transformation.

He saw Minhyuk every day. They walked with each other to classes, ate together in the cafeteria or studied together in the library (well, Kihyun studied. Minhyuk mostly played games on his phone, but he still at least _went_ to the library with him) and when they weren’t together, they were messaging each other on KakaoTalk.

They had also gone on a couple dates. The first date was as typical as you can get—they went to see the midnight showing of a cheesy horror movie and held hands the entire time. The second date was them spending the afternoon at the lake near campus, Minhyuk following Kihyun around as he took pictures with his camera and then ate sandwiches at a picnic table. They were completely cliché and cringeworthy, but secretly he loved every minute.

It was now late September and Kihyun found himself sitting in the University’s café, waiting for Minhyuk to make his appearance. There was thirty minutes between Kihyun’s classes and it had become routine for the two of them to share a coffee together during the break.

The redhead had been busying himself with his phone when he saw an iced vanilla latte settle down on the table in front of him. He looked up, to see Minhyuk grinning down at him, his own iced drink in his hand (most likely chai tea) as he sat in the chair across from Kihyun.

Kihyun narrowed his eyes as the other settled in. “You’re late,” he said.

“I know, I know, sorry,” said Minhyuk. He shrugged off his black, Adidas jacket so he was only sitting in a striped V-neck, collar bones on display. “I was arguing with Hyungwon and I got side tracked.” 

Kihyun glanced over the collar bones, unable to help himself, before he looked up to the brown eyes. “What were you arguing about?”

Minhyuk took a sip of his drink, resting his chin on his palm. “Over who filled the gas tank last. I told him I was positive it was me since I filled it when we went to the movies, but he doesn’t believe me.” He set the drink down and blew at a tuft of blond hair that fell into his eyes. “He’s just pissed that he has to gas up before his date tomorrow, which means he has to wake up _fifteen_ minutes earlier. He’s such a drama queen.”

Kihyun paused at the statement. “Wait, frog-boy has a date? With who?”

Minhyuk snickered, biting down on his straw as he looked at him attentively. “I love that you call him that. Well, they wouldn’t call it a date, but I would. He’s hanging out with my cousin Hoseok.”

“Ah,” said Kihyun, raising the iced latte to take a sip. He could tell that Minhyuk had asked the barista to add extra vanilla syrup. “The personal trainer.”

“The one and only,” Minhyuk nodded, smiling a bit. “Hyungwon has had the hots for him since Hoseok moved to America three years ago, but he’s completely clueless. Even though Hyungwon basically busts a nut whenever they’re in the same room together—they’re both dumb.”

Kihyun furrowed his brow, blinking in confusion. “Wait, what does ‘busts a nut’ mean?” It was at that moment that the café became uncharacteristically quiet, his statement echoing in the same manner as if he would have said it through a mega phone. Multiple people looked at him in the general vicinity and he quickly realized he should have probably asked that question in private.

Minhyuk, in all his infinite maturity, burst out in a loud fit of laughter as Kihyun shrunk in his chair. “Shut up! I don’t know all of the slang—they don’t teach it in school,” Kihyun hissed, feeling his ears turning pink, wishing a wormhole would open up under his chair and suck him into oblivion.

The blond was still giggling, seeming completely unfazed by any looks their small table was getting. He watched the other man take a big breath and holding it in, only to start laughing again as soon as he released it. “Oh my God, I’m sorry. Just—just give me a minute,” gasped Minhyuk, biting his lip, body shaking.

“I hate you.” Kihyun wondered if he slid under the table, anyone would notice. Thankfully, the hum of the café seemed to pick up after a minute and he started feeling slightly less embarrassed. He set a glare on his face. The fucker was _still_ laughing at him.

“No, you don’t,” Minhyuk said, matter-of-factly. It’s true, Kihyun didn’t, but that was besides the point. It took another minute, but finally Minhyuk collected himself. “Sorry,” he said again. “I suppose you want to know what ‘bust a nut’ means.” The other man had enough decency to say it in a hushed tone.

Kihyun tongued the inside of his cheek. “After all that, I’d slap you if you didn’t.”

“Oh, kinky,” Minhyuk winked, tilting his head as he leered across the table. “Careful, I might like it.”

“Noted.” Kihyun rolled his eyes, knowing the obvious flirting was to try and embarrass him so he tried to toss back the comment—it did make his heart skip a beat, though. “So, are you going to tell me?”

“That I like it rough?” Minhyuk asked, blinking unevenly. When Kihyun just stared blankly at him he finally relented. “Ugh, you’re no fun. Busting a nut means, like…” He thought for a moment. “I don’t know the Korean word for it. It’s like this,” he said, making an obvious jerking motion with his large hand, ending it with spreading out his fingers in a sudden movement, making an unnecessary ‘ _Pah_!’ sound when he did. “You know, ejaculating.”

“Oh,” said Kihyun, finally understanding but then feeling instantly frustrated. “How in the hell is someone supposed to know that from the phrase?” he sighed eventually, drinking his coffee. American slang was weird. “Also, gross. I don’t want to think about frog-boy doing that.”

“Well, the more you know.” the other smiled sweetly at him, blinking in his uneven fashion. “I’m sure your parents would be excited to know you’re learning so much,” Minhyuk teased. “Were you able to talk to them yesterday?”

Kihyun sighed internally. If his parents knew about the new ‘extracurricular’ activities he was taking part in, they would probably shriek in terror. “Yeah, I did. Only for a little while though, since it was really late over there.”

“I’m glad you managed to catch them,” said Minhyuk. “Are they doing well?”

“I’d say so,” Kihyun shrugged. “I think they’re just happy that the devil hasn’t taken over my soul yet.”

“Give me a little more time, I’m working on it.”

The redhead snorted, spinning the ice in his cup as he rolled his eyes again. “Devil? You’re more like the outcome if the sun and a puppy had a baby.”

The other man seemed to glow at the comparison, giving Kihyun a beaming smile, showing off all his perfectly white teeth. _Damnit, does he always need to be so pretty?_ “Did you want to start walking to your class?”

Kihyun glanced at the time on his phone. “Yeah, we should probably get going.” He stood up and grabbed his backpack, swinging it over his shoulder as Minhyuk pulled his jacket back on and picked up his messenger bag. The two started walking towards the exit, drinks still in hand.

“I think you’re the only person I know who likes to be at class ten minutes early,” commented Minhyuk, grabbing the door to the café and holding it open for Kihyun.

“I just like getting a good seat.” Kihyun shrugged his shoulders, walking through the open door.

“A good seat, huh? You’re so cute.” Minhyuk laughed, reaching over and tugging on Kihyun’s earlobe affectionately.

He batted at the hand lightly, but clearly not bothered by the other’s touching. Minhyuk was one of the most ‘touchy-feely’ people he had even encountered. It took a bit to get used to, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it. “Being a good student is cute, huh?” he asked as they left the student union building, heading towards the walking path outside.

Minhyuk hummed in thought, finishing the last of his iced drink and tossing it into a nearby trash can. “Well, maybe not _specifically_ that. You’re just cute in general.”

Kihyun peeked at the other through the corner of his eye. Unsurprisingly, Minhyuk was smiling at him—there really was no off switch for him. “I’m not cute,” he replied, gruffly. He shifted his backpack on his shoulder as they walked outside, the breeze feeling refreshing. “I’m sexy.”

“Well, that too,” Minhyuk amended, letting his fingers brush lightly against Kihyun’s.

“At least you admitted it,” Kihyun smirked at Minhyuk, ignoring the instant burning of his ears. Trying to seem unbothered, he took a sip of his coffee, glancing at the other, straw still in his mouth. “You’re okay to look at too, I guess.”

Minhyuk gasped, slapping a hand against his chest. “Okay? _Just_ okay?” He gaped at him comically, before laughing and shoving his hands into the pockets of his ripped jeans. “I can live with ‘okay’. I know what I look like,” he said as he winked.

Kihyun snorted, looking away for a moment. He knew what he looked like too and it was definitely _more_ than okay. Minhyuk looked like a slim version of a Sun God that fell onto earth. Or, maybe a fallen angel. Either way, Minhyuk didn’t need to know that he thought that way. Looking back, he said “At least we can agree on something,” They continued their walk until they finally reached the large, brown bricked English and Childhood Education building.

Minhyuk hopped in front of the redhead so he could open the door to the building (he _always_ opened the door for Kihyun). Kihyun snorted as the blond swept his hand across the opening in a very dramatic way. “Brains before beauty,” the other man said.

Kihyun rolled his eyes as he fought a smile, biting his top lip before letting it go. He threw his empty coffee cup into the can next to the door before saying: “Sorry, did you say, ‘brains and beauty’? Cool, that’s me, thanks,” he said, walking past the other with his nose in the air.

“ _Wow_ ,” Minhyuk commented, quickly catching up. “ _Somebody’s_ arrogant.”

“Not arrogant when it’s true.”

“Smug too, huh?” Minhyuk spoke with no bite as they walked through the hall of the building, heading towards the stairs to the second floor, the taller boy adjusting his stride to keep up with Kihyun’s pace.

“When’s your next class?” Kihyun asked once they hit the steps, taking them two at a time up the flight.

“I’m done for today, remember?” said Minhyuk. “My last class was at eleven. Now I’m free until I work.”

“Oh, that’s right. Must be nice.” Kihyun grabbed onto the strap of his bag once they hit the top of the stairs and making their way down the hall.

“It’d be nicer if I didn’t work,” the taller man sighed, ruffling his hair a bit and making the blond strands stick up in a weird way on one side. He didn’t seem to notice. “But at least I can squeeze in some Overwatch before my shift.”

The redhead hummed in response as they reached the wooden door of his classroom, but stopped once he saw the large paper sign taped to it. He narrowed his eyes as he read the sign. _English Literature 12:30pm Class Cancelled_.

“Oh, lucky! Looks like you get a free period,” said Minhyuk after he read the sign as well.

Kihyun glared at the door, tonguing the inside of his cheek. “Well, that would have been nice to know _before_ we walked all the way over here.”

“That’s why you should get the University’s App—you get updated automatically if a Professor cancels,” said Minhyuk turning towards Kihyun, looking at him intently. “How long is it until your last class, again?”

“It’s at 3, so two and a half hours,” said Kihyun, raising an eyebrow at the other’s expression. The blond’s lips were pursed in a straight line as he waited for the answer. “Why?”

Minhyuk’s expression turned slowly into a smile as he watched the other man glance around the empty hallway, checking for any other people. He took a step forward, entering into Kihyun’s personal space as a large hand reached forward to play with Kihyun’s backpack strap. “Wanna come over and hang out at my place until then?” he said, leaning in and whispering into his ear.

Kihyun tilted his head up at the other man, the air against his ear causing goosebumps to spring across the skin of his arms. Not wanting the other to hold all the power, he managed to laugh a little and smile back. He reached forward once Minhyuk pulled away and fixed the strands in the blond’s hair that were still standing up messily on one side. “Sure,” he said, stroking through his hair for a moment before pulling back. His smile turned into a small smirk. “As long as you distract me from how dirty your apartment is.”

“Deal!” chirped Minhyuk, grabbing Kihyun’s arm as he was all but dragged out of the building.

Yeah, it was probably better that his parents didn’t know what he had been getting himself up to.

 

☼

 

Minhyuk was generally a happy person. Sure, he would get sad on occasion (normally when he would lose in Overwatch or Fortnite), but overall, he was able to keep a good outlook on life and almost always have a positive attitude. That aside, he could honestly say that since the beginning of the fall semester, he had been the happiest he had ever been and that was thanks to meeting Kihyun.

It had been an incredibly long time since he felt that he had genuinely liked someone and even longer since he had had a boyfriend. Him and Kihyun were not “official” yet, but he felt confident that their relationship was heading in that direction and the thought made him down right giddy.

He was even more giddy at the fact that the other boy had agreed to spend time with him between his classes. Alone. At his apartment. And Hyungwon wasn’t home. _Score_.

“Is skipping really necessary?” the blond heard Kihyun say as they made their way down the hallway of his apartment complex.

Minhyuk had been humming _Be Our Guest_ from Beauty and the Beast, but stopped to answer the other’s question. “I’m not skipping, I’m just hopping as I walk,” said Minhyuk and continuing to do just that until they stopped in front of his door, grabbing his keys from his bag.

“Yeah, that’s what a person calls ‘skipping’,” snorted Kihyun, stopping at his side.

“Skipping, hopping, blah, blah, blah. That’s all I’m hearing,” said Minhyuk, turning the key and hearing the lock give on his door. He raised his hand and settled it on the doorknob, pausing for a moment. “So—.”

“I know, you didn’t get a chance to clean.” Kihyun rolled his almond shaped eyes. “You tell me that _every_ time I come over. You and Hyungwon wouldn’t know how to clean even if you took a class in it.”

Minhyuk pouted at the other boy. “Okay, harsh. We’re not _that_ bad…”

Kihyun bounced on his heels. “You are, but you agreed that you were going to distract me, right?”

He felt the grin that spread on his face. “Distracting I can do,” he cooed, finally opening the door and sliding in, kicking off his shoes messily to the floor and tossing his messenger bag next to them.

Once Kihyun was inside and his shoes were (neatly) in the entry way next to his backpack, Minhyuk slapped his hands over Kihyun’s eyes from behind before he could look into the apartment.

Kihyun laughed, bringing up his smaller hands to tug lightly on Minhyuk’s. “ _Really_? Is this necessary?”

“Yep,” Minhyuk quipped, making a loud popping sound at the ‘p’. He started leading the short boy through the living room, not removing his hands from his eyes. “Can’t be mean to me if you can’t see something to be mean about.”

“I’m never mean to you.” He could hear the scowl in Kihyun’s voice. “I just tell you the truth. You’re just used to everyone babying you—you don’t know what mean is.”

“Sure, sure. Whoops, turn this way for a second,” he said, turning the short boy to the right to walk around a couple of pizza boxes that were in the middle of the floor. He righted him again and led them to his hallway.   

“Where are we even going?” asked Kihyun with a sigh, giving up on tugging Minhyuk’s hands from his eyes and allowing himself to be lead passively.

“Bedroom.” Minhyuk bit his tongue to fight a smile. He failed. “Cleanest place in this apartment. Also, there are other reasons I want you there.”

“Oh, really?” Kihyun snorted and his face felt a bit warm under Minhyuk’s hands. _Cute_. “And that would be because...?”

“You’ll have to wait and see,” said Minhyuk, the two coming to the first door in the hallway and he opened it, shoving the other boy inside and slamming the door behind them.

“Hey!” shouted Kihyun in surprise, stumbling into a small pile of Minhyuk’s clothes that were on the floor. “No need to get pushy.”

“Desperate times,” said Minhyuk offhandedly, flipping the lock. He turned around and saw the redhead take in the state of his bedroom, eyes travelling slowly across the space. This was the first time he had brought him to his room—they normally spent their time in the living room. “See? Not that bad, right?”

He watched as Kihyun tongued the inside of his cheek, eyes narrowing as he went from one dirty pile of clothes to another, over to his large pile of stuffed whales he kept in the corner of the room (there were sixteen in total, he _really_ liked whales) and glanced at the dust on the floor. He looked back to Minhyuk. “Well, at least it doesn’t smell bad in here,” he said evenly.

“One point for Minhyuk!” He punched his fist in the air and then hopped onto his twin sized bed, blankets unmade and gathered at the foot of his bed. He grabbed his favorite stuffed whale that had been sitting on his pillow and snuggled it in his arms, crossing his legs.

“Why do you even bother having a hamper if your just put all the clothes on the floor?” Kihyun asked him in a tone that sounded a lot like his Mother’s as he sat down next to him on the other side of the bed, pulling up his legs so their thighs would touch.

“I put them in there eventually when I have to do laundry,” said Minhyuk, leaning his back against the headboard and stretching his legs out. He tossed the stuffed whale in the air before catching it in his hands. “You’re so _judgy_.”

“Isn’t the word ‘judgemental’?” sighed Kihyun, leaning back as well, arm brushing lightly against Minhyuk’s. He reached over and grabbed the whale from his hands, looking at the stuffed animal with a raised eyebrow. “And I’m not judgemental or ‘judgy’. Aren’t you a bit old for these?”

“See? _Judgy_ ,” Minhyuk pouted. “And don’t be mean to Jeremy, he’s a good guy.”

Kihyun let out a loud laugh, leaning his body forward and squeezing the plush in his hands. “‘Jeremy’? You named your whale Jeremy?”

“What? It suits him. All of them have names,” said the blond, grabbing Jeremy the Whale from Kihyun’s grasp and gently tossing him into the pile in the corner. “If you’re nice, I’ll introduce them later.” He leaned his head against Kihyun’s shoulder—he had to scoot down a bit due to their height difference, but found a comfortable spot, resting his hand on the other’s thigh.

“I’ll pass, thanks,” said Kihyun quietly, leaning his body into Minhyuk’s. He watched as a smaller hand moved to lightly touch the back of Minhyuk’s, fingers swirling circles softly against his skin. “So,” he continued after a moment, which made Minhyuk lift his head to look at the other boy. “Weren’t you going to distract me?” he asked finally, eyes looking off to the side, ears pink. His voice attempted to sound nonchalant, but the eagerness was clear as day.

Minhyuk bit his lip as he smiled. “I did say that, didn’t I?” He sat onto his knees before swinging his leg over so he was now straddling Kihyun’s thighs. The other boy inhaled suddenly at the movement as Minhyuk rested his hands on Kihyun’s narrow shoulders, leaning his face close to the other’s. “So, Kihyun—how would you like to be distracted?”

The redhead snorted, flushing visibly as he looked Minhyuk in the eyes. He smiled a bit, smaller hands resting on Minhyuk’s knees, caressing them lightly. “Guess,” said Kihyun, voice rather quiet and ears turning red. Minhyuk licked his lips, eyes connecting before he leaned over and pressed his lips gently against the other’s.   

The blond couldn’t help the content sigh that left his lips at the contact—any tension he had in body released at the feeling. The two of them had shared multiple kisses at this point, but they hadn’t had alone time like this since they watched Aladdin on his couch and Minhyuk was aching for the contact. He tilted his head to the side, pressing soft kisses against the other’s mouth, a hand sliding from Kihyun’s shoulder to rest against the side of the redhead’s neck. He licked at Kihyun’s bottom lip, before pulling it into his mouth, tugging shortly with his teeth and letting it go.

Kihyun groaned quietly, grip tightening on Minhyuk’s knees as he pressed forward, the blond opening his mouth willingly and letting Kihyun lick inside his mouth. Tongues sliding against each other as the kiss deepened, Minhyuk scooted his body up to get even closer, his other hand creeping along to grab at his waist.

Kihyun leaned up into the kiss as Minhyuk towered over him, lips steadily growing more eager as the short boy met each lick with vigor. He felt hands slide up from his knees to rub over his clothed thighs, wishing suddenly that they weren’t separated by the stupid fabric. He rolled his hips down into Kihyun’s crotch and groaned into the other’s mouth at the friction it caused and heard Kihyun’s breath hitch in turn. It was so much, but not nearly enough at all.

They stayed connected for some time before eventually breaking apart for some much needed air. Minhyuk couldn’t help licking over his lips once they separated, enjoying that taste that was left behind, but craving more. He looked into the almond shaped eyes below him, the pupils dilated to the point that they took over the brown irises. Kihyun looked at him with an intense stare, clear lust showing across his face as he looked at Minhyuk.

One moment Minhyuk was straddling Kihyun’s thighs, the next he was getting shoved backwards, back falling flush against the foot of his bed. He released a gasp in surprise, eyes widening as Kihyun crawled after him, gripping his thighs in his hands as he pulled them roughly towards himself with a shocking amount of strength, lower bodies meeting flush instantly. The shorter boy hovered over him, dark eyes staring down at Minhyuk’s shocked expression before closing the distance and crashing their lips together.

Minhyuk let out an unrestrained moan—he loved being manhandled like that. His hands raised so he could place them on either side of Kihyun’s neck, fingers rubbing over the fine hairs at his nape as he pulled the other’s face as close as he could to his own. Kihyun tasted vaguely of vanilla with a mixture of something that was so clearly him. It was intoxicating and Minhyuk wanted their mouths to melt together forever.

He arched up into the body above him, letting his crotch rub up against the other’s as their mouths continued to meld together. Minhyuk could feel his erection straining against his pants as he gripped desperately at the other boy, moving his hands from the neck to make their way down his back, dull nails scraping across the fabric of Kihyun’s black t-shirt. He was so turned on it actually _hurt_.

The redhead parted only to move his lips down, tongue trailing across Minhyuk’s sharp jaw as he continued down to his neck. Minhyuk’s breath hitched in his throat immediately at the sensation. His neck was sensitive to the point it was almost embarrassing—he probably could get off from having his neck bitten alone, if someone gave it enough attention and he was _very_ excited to have Kihyun’s pretty mouth against it.

“Kihyun,” he whispered, feeling the lips move across his collar bones, teeth lightly dragging across them before moving back up near his jugular.

“Yeah?” the other asked, sucking harshly at the skin and Minhyuk shuddered, the sensation shooting a pang of electricity south, his hips squeezing tightly around the other body. “You said you like it rough, right?” he asked him and it made him shiver. He wanted to call out the fact that Kihyun had said that in Korean when a set of teeth suddenly sank down into the flesh of his neck. _Hard_.

The sudden pain was washed over by pleasure as Minhyuk was unable to resist moaning loudly, shifting his hips in retaliation. The bite followed by the harsh sucking on his neck was doing things to him that he wasn’t expecting Kihyun to evoke. Maybe it was because Kihyun was shorter and smaller than him, but he never expected him to be so dominant and aggressive towards him, but…

Minhyuk liked it. Really, _really_ liked it.

The blond craned his neck away, giving Kihyun as much access he could, fisting a hand into the thick, red hair as his neck was deliciously assaulted. It felt like his skin was being devoured by the other boy as his body was responding desperately to it. He felt Kihyun kiss further south only to bite harshly at the spot where his neck joined his shoulder and Minhyuk swooned.

“Fuck,” he groaned, biting his lip, unable to keep his eyes fluttering shut. He gripped even harder at Kihyun’s hair, pushing him further into his neck as his body trembled. He felt the teeth continuing to nip at his skin only to be followed by his tongue licking over the abused area to suck it into the redhead’s mouth. He shifted his hips trying to relieve some of the pressure in his groin when his erection moved against Kihyun’s, who was clearly just as excited as he was.

“Need some help down there?” Kihyun mumbled into his neck, breath hitting against the wetness and making him shiver.

“Are you offering?” Minhyuk muttered back, voice a bit hoarse from his vocalizations. Kihyun raised his head to look at Minhyuk’s half lidded eyes, a small smirk sitting on his face, his own eyes impossibly dark.

“Maybe,” the other said, hand’s roaming up the blond’s thighs to his hips, fingers tracing the bit of exposed flesh above his jeans before slipping underneath Minhyuk’s striped shirt. His fingers traced the thin lines of definition on his stomach before continuing their journey upwards to Minhyuk’s chest, brushing over one of his nipples. “If you ask nicely.”

Minhyuk bit roughly at his lip, looking at Kihyun through his eyelashes. He swallowed thickly. “Please?” he whispered.

Kihyun looked as if he was fighting a smile as he slid his hand from Minhyuk’s shirt and shifted so he was no longer in between Minhyuk’s legs, but now next to him on the bed. The shorter boy rested on his side as he moved his hand over the blond’s shirt, tugging it up for it to sit bundled above his waist before sliding back down again to undo the button of Minhyuk’s jeans.

He couldn’t help the breath he inhaled in anticipation as he moved up to sit on his elbows to watch what Kihyun was doing. The small hands released the button before sliding the zipper down slowly, revealing Minhyuk’s bright red underwear. It was clear that Minhyuk’s dick was straining against the confines of the fabric, tip leaking as it left a defined wet patch where the head sat near the elastic.

Kihyun hummed, looking down as his hand reached in to palm gently over the clothed bulge, instantly making Minhyuk hiss at the contact. Kihyun laughed through his nose as he trailed his finger over the wet spot on his underwear. “Of course you’d be messy here too,” he said softly. The shorter boy swiftly moved so he could tug Minhyuk’s jeans further down his hips, hands slipping into the waist band of his boxer briefs and pulling them down.

As Minhyuk’s dick was set free and fully exposed, he couldn’t help taking a quick glance over at Kihyun who was looking down at his erection with relatively wide eyes, his mouth open in what appeared to be surprise.

“Uh.” Minhyuk blinked as Kihyun stared at his crotch like it was going to talk back to him. His dick was sitting against his stomach, rock hard with a drop of precum leaking out of the tip. “Is, uh, everything okay?” he asked, biting his lip a gain as his dick twitched.

“You’re…” Kihyun trailed off, visibly swallowing before continuing, “kind of big, aren’t you?”

Minhyuk felt himself flush at the comment and the intense staring. He was definitely bigger than average, but he never really paid much attention to it. “Um, is that bad?” he asked tentatively.

Kihyun shook his head, face visibly flushed. “Just surprised,” he murmured. Minhyuk watched the shorter boy raise a thumb to his lips, licking over the pad before bringing it down to swirl it over Minhyuk’s tip, collecting the precum and spreading it around the head, digging into the slit.

“Holy shit,” Minhyuk breathed, falling from his elbows onto his back and he bucked up instantly and let out a moan.

He saw Kihyun glance at him through his bangs with a smirk on his face. “Excited?” he asked, wrapping his hand around his length and using the moisture for lubrication as he pumped his hand. “I guess this won’t take too long, huh?”

“Shut up,” said Minhyuk, trying to keep himself from sounding whiny. He thrusted up into the hand on instinct. “I can’t help it.”

“I can tell,” Kihyun snorted almost arrogantly, but the way he kept licking his lips as he watched Minhyuk react made it clear that he was into what he was seeing. He gripped firmly and started pumping Minhyuk rhythmically, moving from tip to base and back again, milking more precum out of the head that kept dripping out.

Minhyuk moaned loudly, arching into Kihyun’s grip and he squeezed his eyes shut—he never thought getting a hand job would turn him on this much. What was he, in high school? But the blond was so incredibly attracted to Kihyun and loved the way he could go from hesitant to the aggressor in a matter of seconds, taking over control and making Minhyuk quiver.

He felt himself getting close at an embarrassingly quick pace, the tightening in his lower abdomen starting to breach to the point of no return. When he felt it, he snapped up and caught Kihyun’s wrist in his hand, halting his movement.

“Is something wrong?” Kihyun asked, looking almost panicked as Minhyuk gripped at his wrist.

Minhyuk shook his head quickly, blond hair flying with the action. “No, just,” he started, lightly pulling Kihyun’s hand off to grab him and pulled the redhead back on top of him, Kihyun catching himself with his hands on either side of Minhyuk’s shoulders.

Kihyun inhaled in surprise as Minhyuk hissed when Kihyun’s clothed erection rubbed against his naked dick as the redhead hovered over. He looked up at him, gathering himself for a moment before smiling. He reached out to start unbuttoning Kihyun’s jeans. “Can’t let you have all the fun, can I?” he asked, popping open the button and unzipping the zipper immediately after.

“Guess not.” Kihyun licked over his lips again as be pulled back a bit to make more room as he watched Minhyuk’s hand. The redhead let him shimmy his jeans down far enough to make it easier for the blond to reach inside. Minhyuk managed to hold back the gasp of excitement when he wrapped his hand around Kihyun’s dick for the first time—touching it was _so_ much better then feeling it through layers of clothes. He was glad to see that the other boy was as turned on as he was, his dick was practically throbbing in his hand. “Oh, God,” gasped Kihyun, body twitching as Minhyuk took a sturdy grip while pumping him a couple of times.

“Nope, I’m the devil, remember?” Minhyuk grinned at him, hooking his leg behind Kihyun’s thigh to push Kihyun’s body into his, erections now pressed against each other without any barrier to separate them. He let out a groan at the skin on skin contact, wrapping his large hand around both of their lengths and pumping them at the same time.

Kihyun fell against him with a moan as he rocked into Minhyuk’s hand and slid his erection against his own and Minhyuk thought he was going to go nuts. He heard Kihyun whisper his name as he crashed his mouth to Minhyuk’s, kissing him desperately.

Minhyuk moaned loudly into the kiss as he sped up the strokes of his hand, arching up wanting to feel as much of the other boy as possible. He licked into Kihyun’s mouth hungrily and couldn’t stop the near constant sounds that tumbled out.

Kihyun kissed down to Minhyuk’s neck again and started sucking harshly at the skin making the blond buck up with need. He kept pumping his hand over them, motions jerky and desperate but fitting the clear need that the two of them shared perfectly.

Minhyuk’s orgasm had been close for some time, but he finally reached the edge when Kihyun bit down hard at the spot right behind his ear, making his body spasm as he released onto his own stomach and hand with a moan that bordered on a scream.

He panted for a moment as post orgasm bliss wanted to wash over him, but he halted it as he still had a task, literally, at hand. He opened his eyes that he hadn’t realized he had closed to see Kihyun looking down at him, lust and need clear on his face as sweat gathered near his brow. He looked fucking gorgeous.

Swallowing quickly, Minhyuk moved his hand so he was solely grasping onto Kihyun’s length, using a bit of his own cum to aid in more lubrication and he started pumping Kihyun quickly. He watched the redhead’s eyes become half lidded, mouth parting as he thrusted into Minhyuk’s hand like his life depended on it.

It didn’t take much longer for Kihyun to peak and he came with a quiet moan, releasing onto Minhyuk’s hand as well as his stomach, which had already been covered from his own orgasm.

Kihyun let out a shaky breath as Minhyuk released his grip and the short boy fell onto his side next to him on the bed. Minhyuk was still panting, looking up at the ceiling as he tried to collect himself after what had been one of the hottest sexual experiences in his twenty-two years and there wasn’t even any penetration involved.

“So,” Minhyuk began after a sufficient amount of time had been spent with them only breathing next to each other, “that was super fun.”

Kihyun laughed next to him, Minhyuk turning to look at his face only to be met with a breathtaking smile, his brown eyes forming into perfect crescents. “Yeah,” he agreed.

Minhyuk grinned at him as he moved his hand to pull down his shirt that was still bunched up near his chest when he stopped and realized he had a medium sized puddle of cum on his stomach. “Uh, can you do me a favor and grab me some tissues?”

“Oh,” said Kihyun, glancing down to Minhyuk’s stomach and flushing instantly, ears incredibly red. “Where are they?” Minhyuk pointed him in the right direction and Kihyun managed to find them under one of his dirty shirts.

“Thanks!” Minhyuk smiled once they were handed to him and he grabbed a handful to clean off his stomach the best that he could—he would definitely need to shower before he went to work. Once he deemed himself clean enough he rolled his shirt back down and tucked himself back into his pants. He looked over to Kihyun who had already zipped himself back up and was lounging with his legs crossed on the bed, watching Minhyuk somewhat intently. “Did you like my distraction?” Minhyuk asked him, teasingly and feeling very lethargic. He really wanted to take a nap.

Kihyun snorted and rolled his eyes but there was no malice in the action. “Yeah, it was okay, I guess,” he said, sniffing a bit before smiling down at him and Minhyuk rolled his eyes at him. He reached into his pocket to grab his phone out and looked at the time, eyes going wide immediately after. “Shit, I have to go to be able catch the bus before my class,” he jumped from the bed and started making his way to the door.

Minhyuk was about to protest about leaving without saying goodbye when the redhead turned around quickly and moved to the side Minhyuk was lying on to bend down and place a chaste kiss against his lips. The blond blinked up at him as he hovered before beaming at him from the instant warmth that filled his chest.

“I’ll message you later, okay?” Kihyun said as Minhyuk nodded, giving him another quick kiss before leaning back. He looked over Minhyuk’s face before his eyes settled somewhere a bit lower and he burst out laughing seemingly out of nowhere.

“What?” Minhyuk blinked again, sitting up and staring at the other boy, completely lost. “What’s so funny?”

Kihyun was still laughing as he bit at his top lip. “You’ll see,” he snickered, grinning at him briefly before walking towards the door. “Just remember, you said you’d wear it as a badge of honor,” he called as he walked briskly to the bedroom door to unlock it. He turned around as he opened it, giving him a short wave as he still chuckled, closing it behind him.

Minhyuk stared at the door, very confused. If he had been at his normal energy level, he would have chased after the other boy to pester him about why he was laughing at him in the first place. However, his current brain was the consistency of mush, so he let it go for now.

He lazily grabbed his phone to check the time and groaned when he realized he worked in an hour. Begrudgingly, he rolled out of bed unable to help the smile that crept on his lips as he thought about how well his day had went—having a groaning and moaning Yoo Kihyun in his bed was definitely one of the highlights of his life.

He dragged his feet across his bedroom to make his way to the bathroom, hopefully able to make himself look presentable enough to be around people’s food. He entered the bathroom, closing the door behind him and flipping on the light switch, pulling his shirt off right afterwards. He had intended to head straight for the shower when he stopped dead at his reflection in the mirror.

He ran up to the sink, gripping the porcelain tightly as he stared wide-eyed at what he saw. Spanning nearly the full length of his neck was a bright, purple and red hickey that was easily the size of his closed fist.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he said, craning his neck in shock as he looked at it—there was nothing short of a turtle neck that would cover up that monstrosity. The size of Texas? No. More like the size of fucking Australia _plus_ New Zealand.

Minhyuk stared at it before he started laughing, nearly uncontrollably. He never thought he’d be so excited by a hickey. Biting his lip, he grabbed out his phone again, turning on his camera. Making a peace sign and grinning from ear to ear, he took a selfie with the hickey in full view and sent it to Kihyun.

<Minhyuk: nice fucking work i will wear it with pride!!>

<Minhyuk: its like a giant sign saying Kihyun was here (4 smiley faces wearing sunglasses emojis)>

<Minhyuk: (16 heart emojis) text me when youre done with class mwah>

Laughing still as he set his phone down on the sink, he slipped off his underwear and jeans, letting them fall to a messy pile to the floor. He was about to step into the shower when his phone vibrated against the sink. He grabbed it swiftly to open the message from Kihyun.

<Kihyun: I will.>

<Kihyun: (heart emoji)>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope people are enjoying this! Any feedback is always greatly appreciated. :D


	5. Let Your Heart Decide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kihyun is Googling his burning question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, there's smut again.

[ **Google:** _How to ask someone to be your boyfriend_ ]

Kihyun stared at the search bar intently. He glanced over from his spot perched on his lofted bed, laptop in his crossed legs, to make sure Hyunwoo’s back was still turned to him at his desk. After making sure the elder was not interested in anything Kihyun was doing, he hit enter and Google answered his burning question in 0.63 seconds.

He bit at his top lip, trying to not let himself feel utterly ridiculous as he clicked on the first link the search engine had to offer which happened to be a wikiHow page titled: _How to Ask a Guy to be Your Boyfriend 15 Steps (with pictures)_. Well, wikiHow taught him how to tie a tie properly, why couldn’t it tell him how to ask out a guy he’d seen nearly every day since he had come to America?

_Fifteen steps though? Seems a little excessive,_ he thought absently before browsing the article. He tongued the inside of the cheek once he realized that article seemed to be written for a girl asking someone to be their boyfriend (and he was definitely _not_ a girl), but tried to make use of it regardless.

Step one asked him if he was ready for commitment. He rolled his eyes— _obviously_ if he wasn’t he wouldn’t be looking at the stupid article to begin with. The step continued to ask: _Are you sure you like him? Do you feel excited when he’s around? Do you miss him when he is gone?_

Yes, yes, and double yes.

Minhyuk was incredibly different from Kihyun in many different ways. He was boisterous and loud, absent minded and messy, completely and utterly not afraid to be himself. Kihyun could say he was the opposite of all of those things, but he felt that their differences rounded each other out. The blond was also intoxicatingly cheerful, sweet, affectionate and one of the most attractive people he had ever laid eyes on, if he were to be truthful with himself. So, was he sure he liked Minhyuk?

Absolutely.

He glazed over step two to read step three which asked if he thought the other guy liked him. He paused for a moment. Minhyuk was generally friendly with most people and nearly always had a blinding smile on his face wherever he went, no matter who he was looking at. However, the blond was also constantly messaging him, spending time with him whenever he was able and always wanting to make plans. Even though the idea made him a bit embarrassed, he felt pretty confident that Minhyuk liked him as much as he did.

[ **Step Four: Prepare Yourself for Rejection** ]

Kihyun slammed his laptop shut as if the words had bit him. He glared at the flat top of his computer, ignoring his increased heart rate. Why was he reading a stupid article on how to ask someone out, anyway? He was twenty-two and a fully grown man! He didn’t need the article to tell him what he should do (even if he had been the one to search for the answer to begin with).

He couldn’t keep the scowl from his face as he thought about the word ‘rejection’. What if he went through with asking Minhyuk and he said no? The thought, to his embarrassment, devastated him. He knew that the title of ‘boyfriend’ in a lot of ways was just that—a title. But even though they hadn’t known each other for a terribly long time, he had never felt this way about another person before.

What made him the most nervous, when it came down to it, was the fact that he had never been in an official relationship. He had ‘dated’ two girls in high school (both relationships were short lived and ended very badly as it took him dating them to realize he didn’t like girls to begin with) and had had the occasional hook up, but not an official boyfriend. However, the idea just seemed to come naturally when he thought about Minhyuk and he couldn’t imagine their relationship turning out any other way. In fact, he was shocked that Minhyuk hadn’t been the one to ask him yet, but Kihyun felt like he should be the one to do it.

He groaned loudly, sliding down into a laying position on his mattress and pushed the heels of his palms into his eyes. This was so embarrassing and shouldn’t be that complicated, but he was at a complete lost.

“Hey.”

“Jesus Christ!” Kihyun jumped at the sudden appearance of Hyunwoo’s head popped up by the side of his bed. He hadn’t heard the older man approach. “Hyunwoo-hyung, _seriously_ wear a bell!”

“I’m not a cat,” Hyunwoo frowned, small eyes narrowing. “I tried getting your attention again but you ignored me. What’s got you all jumpy this time?”

Kihyun sighed internally. He contemplated about asking Hyunwoo about how he thought he should ask Minhyuk out—he was his best friend after all—but something inside him just didn’t want to breach the subject. Maybe it was just something he truly wanted to figure out on his own? He wasn’t sure, but asking Hyunwoo about it didn’t seem right for him at that moment.

“Nothing, just reading a horror story,” he replied, gazing downwards.

“You always look down when you lie, but I’ll leave it be for now,” shrugged Hyunwoo. “Hey, how do you spell ‘definitely’ in English?”

Kihyun had the urge to glare at how well Hyunwoo really knew him, but decided that if the elder was going to drop the subject, he would too. He spelled the word for him and Hyunwoo thanked him before returning to his desk.

Kihyun fought another sigh as he grabbed onto his blue sweatshirt and tugged the fabric, trying to get airflow to his chest. He felt too hot all of a sudden. He was still fanning himself when there was a knock at the door. Kihyun looked to it when he saw the door, which had been unlocked, crack open a bit.

“Special delivery,” a husky voice announced from the crack before opening the door with a flourish, revealing the lean frame of Minhyuk. He raised both his hands above his blond head in a pose. “It’s me!”

Kihyun had to use all of his facial muscles to keep himself from smiling. Minhyuk was wearing his usual pair of distressed jeans, a form fitting, light blue V-neck and his blond hair was lightly tussled. He looked, as usual, absolutely perfect.

Gathering his self-control and trying to hide his obvious leering, the redhead raised an eyebrow. “What’s with the pose?” he asked, still fighting a smile.

“Just felt like making an entrance,” said Minhyuk grinning at him instantly. He turned to close the door before walking further into the room. “Hey, Hyunwoo-hyung,” he greeted, turning his grin to Hyunwoo as he spoke to the older man in Korean as it made the bulky man more comfortable.

“Hey, Minhyuk-ah,” Hyunwoo said, smiling back and eyes crinkling.

“What are you guys doing?” asked Minhyuk, walking over to Kihyun’s bed and climbing up the ladder.

“Homework,” Hyunwoo answered, watching as the blond crawled into the bed to squeeze in next to Kihyun, who automatically shifted closer to the wall to make room for the other man. “And Kihyun’s been groaning in his bed for the last twenty-minutes.”

“Groaning in his bed?” Minhyuk repeated, looking at Hyunwoo before turning his face to look at Kihyun, brown eyes wide. “Without me? Meanie.”

Kihyun’s ears turned instantly red and he smacked Minhyuk’s shoulder. “Not that kind of groaning!” he hissed, turning to look at Hyunwoo with a glare.

The broad man shifted awkwardly at Minhyuk’s comment from his spot in his desk chair. “I wouldn’t be in here if he was doing that. He just seems stressed out.”

The blond looked at Kihyun with a soft expression, scooting closer so their sides were flush against each other as he rested his hand lightly on the redhead’s thigh. “Is everything okay?” he asked quietly, usual playfulness leaving his voice.

Kihyun felt himself melt at the expression as he looked into Minhyuk’s eyes. He smiled a bit. “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry,” he told him. He thought about the reason he was feeling stressed to begin with, which made him feel embarrassed—he wasn’t going to tell Minhyuk, not yet at least. “I’m just…nervous about writing a paper, it’s my first one completely in English,” he made up quickly. It wasn’t exactly lie—he _did_ have a paper he had to write. He looked down at Minhyuk’s large hand that was lightly rubbing his thigh in a calming gesture. “But, it’ll be okay.”

“You’re looking down again,” he heard Hyunwoo mumble, before he saw the man shake his head, turning his back to them at his desk.

“You know what you need?” said Minhyuk, slapping his leg. “To watch something fun!” He reached for Kihyun’s laptop which had been pushed towards the foot of the bed. He put the laptop on his legs, opening it up.

Kihyun froze in horror as his laptop wasn’t password protected and realized that his web browser was open on a stupid, 15 step wikiHow page on how to ask someone to be their boyfriend. He watched in slow motion as the page showed up on the screen, still focusing on step four (the word ‘rejection’ sticking out like it was shouted at him) and he looked at Minhyuk in a panic. His heart felt like it was about to explode.

The Gods must have been smiling down on him that day as the blond didn’t even seem to look at the contents of the page before typing into the address bar to pull up Hulu. The redhead’s body nearly combusted in relief.

“Have you ever watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine?” asked Minhyuk, looking intently at Hulu’s home page and logging into his account.

“No,” he said, heart finally calming down a bit. He watched as the other typed in his password quickly on the keyboard. “Is your password ‘whaleboy69’?” he started laughing as Minhyuk swung his head in his direction.

“Hey, no peeking!” Minhyuk exclaimed, pouting his pink lips. “You better not tell anyone! I hate changing my passwords.”

Kihyun snorted, biting his top lip as he tried to not grin. “I’ll take your secret to the grave.”

“You better. I’ll fight you,” warned Minhyuk, pulling up the first episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and pressing play.

“I’m absolutely terrified,” Kihyun deadpanned. He couldn’t imagine the blond man fighting _anyone_ , let alone himself. The man was going to be a Kindergarten teacher, for Christ’s sake.

“You should be,” Minhyuk sniffed, resting the laptop on Kihyun’s thighs as he snuggled up to his side, pulling them down so they were laying on his pillow. He rested his head on Kihyun’s shoulder and pulled his arm across to rest on his waist. “I missed you,” the taller boy whispered, nuzzling his head into the crook of Kihyun’s neck.

Kihyun felt his ears turn pink again, but easily found himself settling into the comfortable warmth of Minhyuk’s body. His eyes were trained diligently on the computer screen. “You saw me on Saturday,” he replied softly.

“That was two days ago,” Minhyuk muttered, his large hand gripping tightly on Kihyun’s waist, seeming to want to be as close as possible.

Kihyun snorted quietly. He moved the arm that Minhyuk was resting on so it wrapped around the lean man’s shoulder, pulling his body closer.

“I missed you too,” Kihyun whispered back.

 

☼

 

Kihyun and Minhyuk spent the next hour watching episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Hulu, cuddling on his relatively small, lofted bed—it should have felt cramped, but it ended up feeling extremely cozy. Minhyuk spent most of the time chatting nearly none stop, laughing, and explaining jokes to Kihyun he didn’t quite understand. It was nice—it felt a lot like home.

“I’m going to head to the gym.” Kihyun looked over to the opposite side of his dorm room, watching Hyunwoo’s broad form reach for his duffle bag and heading to the door. He turned back to look at Kihyun’s bed. “Are you guys going to be at the Korea Club meeting tonight?”

Kihyun said ‘Yes’ at the same time Minhyuk said ‘No’. He glared at the blond in his arms before turning back to Hyunwoo. “We’ll be there.”

“Meet you guys there then,” Hyunwoo said, looking amused as he smiled. He hoisted the duffle bag over his shoulder before he left the room, closing the door behind him.

As soon as the door was closed, Minhyuk unlatched himself from Kihyun’s side before he shimmied himself out of the bed and down the ladder. Kihyun, in a panic, snapped his laptop shut and shoved it away as he leaned over the side of the bed. “Are you going home?” he asked, cringing at the fact his voice sounded _very_ alarmed.

Minhyuk tossed a smile over his shoulder, walking up to the door and turning the lock. “Of course not,” he cooed, walking back over to the bed, taking off his shirt in the process and tossing it to the floor.

Kihyun swallowed. His eyes were roaming over Minhyuk’s suddenly naked torso before he could stop himself. Even though Minhyuk was quite slim, he was covered in lean, beautiful muscles. “Why did you take your shirt off?” he asked dumbly, mouth feeling suddenly dry.

“You’re so cute, I can barely stand it,” said Minhyuk, grinning at him as he climbed the ladder and crawled back into the bed. He sat on Kihyun’s lap, legs settling on either side of him.

Kihyun tried to glare at the other man, but the flush he felt spread across his face would take any bite out of the look. “I’m _not_ cute,” he argued. His hands went to Minhyuk’s naked waist instinctively.

“Yes, you are.” Minhyuk purred, leaning over Kihyun. “But, you are also _really_ sexy,” he said, hands grabbing onto Kihyun’s sweatshirt and tugging it up. “Off,” he ordered.

Trying to find his composure, Kihyun bit his lip as he raised his hands above his head, letting the other man pull his sweatshirt off, leaving him half naked as he hadn’t been wearing a t-shirt underneath. He ignored the burning in his ears and smirked up at the blond’s face. “Something you want?”

“Yep,” said Minhyuk, large hands trailing over Kihyun’s naked shoulders. “You.” His hands travelled down over his chest, rubbing against Kihyun’s soft stomach. “I have a great idea for stress relief. Interested?” the smile on his face turned sultry as he leaned down, placing a kiss onto Kihyun’s lips.

“Maybe,” Kihyun breathed, kissing the blond back before he felt the other’s lips trail downward, placing kisses over his jaw and down his neck. “What,” he swallowed, body tingling as he continued, “what did you have in mind?”

“Hmm,” hummed Minhyuk, continuing his journey downwards, stopping for a moment at Kihyun’s chest to lick over one of his nipples, making Kihyun hiss instantly. He felt the other suck lightly over the nub before moving down again, kissing Kihyun’s stomach, before eventually settling between his legs. “Wanna guess?” he asked, voice low, leaning down and hand palming over the half-hard dick in his jeans.

His eyes went wide for a moment. “Uh,” he managed as Minhyuk tilted his head at him, smiling up at him from between his legs. _Oh, God_.

“ _So_ close,” the other man teased, hand still rubbing over Kihyun’s developing erection before he unbuttoned his jeans, slowly pulling down the zipper. “Wanna try again?”

Kihyun licked his overly dry lips as Minhyuk’s gaze didn’t leave him, shimmying Kihyun’s jeans down his hips to settle at his knees. _Oh…Oh, God_. Fighting against his melting thoughts, he swallowed before trying to smirk again. “I think there’s something better you could do with your mouth instead of asking questions.”

Minhyuk grinned mischievously at him. “You’re right,” he said, tugging Kihyun’s black boxer briefs down so quickly that it caught Kihyun off guard. Before he could process it, he saw Minhyuk’s attractive face shift so it was right above his freed erection and he flicked the head of his dick with his tongue.

He couldn’t help the gasp that fell from his lips, falling back to rest on his elbows. He stared at Minhyuk who smiled back at him.

“Excited?” he asked, smile turning into a smirk as Kihyun got a distinct feeling of déjà vu. “Guess this won’t take too long, huh?”

The redhead had an instant flash back to their last intimate encounter that happened the week before, when he had told Minhyuk the same thing. He wanted to scowl and ask if the other was making fun of him, but all coherent words disappeared from his mind when Minhyuk took the tip suddenly into his mouth.

He moaned, slapping a hand to cover his mouth as Minhyuk began to suck on the head, flicking his tongue across it before suckling on his slit. His hips bucked up before he could stop himself, Minhyuk continuing the suckling as he could visibly see his cock twitch between the pink lips.

“Minhyuk,” he whispered, slipping down a bit further on his elbows, watching as the other man smiled around his length before bobbing half way down, his large hand holding it at the base as he sucked his way back up only to repeat the motion right after. “Holy shit,” he muttered, arching up into the mouth.

“Do you like it?” asked Minhyuk, pulling off only to flatten his tongue and lick from his balls all the way back to the head.

“What do you think,” he moaned out, trying not to be loud as the dorm walls were paper thin (and he _liked_ being able to look his neighbors in the eye). He licked his lips as he panted, unable to look away from the beautiful blond face below him.

“Then watch this,” Minhyuk grinned, taking him back into his mouth, tongue flat against the bottom of his length before he sank all the way down, lips touching the skin of Kihyun’s groin and his erection touching the back of his throat.

Kihyun felt his eyes widen comically as his mouth dropped open, loud groan hitting the walls of the room as he fell back, unable to hold himself up any more. He had gotten a few blowjobs before, but he had never been deep throated like this. It felt insane, his dick completely encased in heat and burning from the inside out.

When Minhyuk did it again, Kihyun instinctively thrust his hips up without thinking, dick sinking in impossibly further. He jolted up and looked down at the face surrounding him.

“Oh God, sorry, I—,” he rambled, looking wide-eyed as Minhyuk slowly brought his mouth back up.

“Why are you sorry?” Minhyuk asked, voice sounding huskier than usual. He stared as the blond reached down to unbutton his own jeans to have his hand creep into his underwear.

“I—,” he began, swallowing, his tongue feeling too big in his mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to make you gag,” he finally managed.

Minhyuk blinked unevenly at him, Kihyun noticing the other had pulled his erection out from his pants to lightly stroke over it. He smiled at him. “But I want you to make me gag,” he said, before sinking back down all the way.

“Oh my God,” Kihyun mouthed silently, falling backwards and staring up at the ceiling as Minhyuk’s mouth moved up and down at a consistent pace, continuing to deep throat him like it was absolutely nothing. He could feel the tongue against the underside tracing a vein every time it travelled back up and Kihyun was desperately trying to keep his hips from moving on their own accord.

Minhyuk evidently had other plans as he felt one of his hands move to his hips, pushing his lower body up to show him that it was okay to move. Inhibitions completely left him, his fingers moved down to lace into the blond hair as he thrusted upwards, engulfing himself continuously into the wet heat.

He felt the other moan around him at his thrusts, Kihyun clearly doing what the other wanted and the vibrations making him shiver. He gripped tightly into the hair, moaning right back as his body worked on its own, almost roughly thrusting back and forth between Minhyuk’s lips—his whole body felt like it was on fire.

It didn’t take much longer when his body finally tensed up, back arching as his hands moved from the blond hair to grip at the sheets, shuddering as he released himself, literally, down Minhyuk’s throat.

Minhyuk stayed down at the base of his dick as it twitched in his mouth through his orgasm, before slowly sucking back up. Kihyun shivering at the stimulation before he was finally released with a small ‘pop’.

Kihyun lied there for several seconds, staring at the ceiling before eventually muttering: “Wow.” He was openly panting as he tried to get his breathing under control which was proving a bit difficult considering the intense orgasm he had just had.

“See? And no mess,” said Minhyuk, when Kihyun looked down he saw him smiling as he kissed his tip absently.

Kihyun blinked. “Oh,” he began, sitting his body up a bit and making a motion towards Minhyuk. “Do you want me to…?”

“Huh?” Minhyuk tilted his head before realization dawned on him with what Kihyun was asking. “Oh, no, it’s fine.” He answered, sitting back on his knees and raising his right hand, the digits covered in strings of white. “I’m good.”

Kihyun flushed looking at the hand. “You got off from doing that?” he couldn’t help but ask, even though he was feeling embarrassed.

“Sure did,” Minhyuk chirped, glancing around the bed. Kihyun noticed that Minhyuk’s voice sounded very rough, but that wasn’t surprising considering what had just transpired. “You were fucking my mouth—it was really hot. Do you have tissues?”

The redhead felt like his face was burning into oblivion when he heard Minhyuk’s comment. Wanting to try and hide it, he looked down, tucking himself back into his underwear and jeans. “Yeah, I do.” He said, reaching behind himself near his pillows to pull out a packet of tissues and handed them to the blond.

“Perfect,” beamed Minhyuk, seemingly unfazed by the situation. He pulled a few tissues out of the packet before cleaning off his hand. Once he was done, he tossed the used tissues over the side of the bed and pulled up his jeans. “I’ll throw those away later.” He commented, jumping his body forward so Kihyun was pinned to the bed, their naked chests gliding against each other until Minhyuk positioned himself so his chin was resting between Kihyun’s pecks, arms wrapped around him.

“You seriously better,” Kihyun warned, narrowing his eyes at the thought of Hyunwoo coming into the room to see semen filled tissues on the floor (that was a situation we would _never_ be ready to deal with). His expression softened a bit as he looked down at Minhyuk’s face. He brought up one of his hands to lightly stroke through the blond strands—his hair was so soft. Minhyuk leaned into the motion, closing his eyes as he let himself be petted.

They stayed that way for sometime, in a somewhat sleepy silence before Kihyun pulled his hand away. “We should get dressed so we can head to the meeting.”

“ _Noooooo_ ,” Minhyuk whined, moving himself up to hide in Kihyun’s neck and gripping his body tightly. “Do we have to? Can’t we just stay here and cuddle all night?”

Kihyun snorted and rolled his eyes. “You’re such a kid.” He moved both his arms to wrap around Minhyuk’s torso, pushing him close. He paused for a moment in thought. “How about we lay here for ten more minutes and then we go. Deal?”

Minhyuk raised his head to blink unevenly at Kihyun before blowing a strand of hair out of his eyes and collapsing back down into Kihyun’s neck. “Fine,” he said, before placing a kiss against Kihyun’s skin.

Kihyun squeezed his arms as tightly as they would go around the body on top of him. He was in so deep—much deeper than he ever thought, but he finally admitted to himself that there was no other place he would rather be.

 

☼

 

Minhyuk _really_ hated going to the Korea Club Meetings, that much hadn’t changed. He may have ‘technically’ been the secretary of the club, but that never made him feel obligated to attend (it wasn’t _his_ fault that Hyungwon had appointed him the position). In total, he had made it to five meetings over the last 2 years and it was five meetings too many.

He could honestly say the only reason he was there that evening, sitting on the cold floor of the club room was because Kihyun liked going, and where Kihyun goes, Minhyuk goes. No questions asked. Well, he did always try and weasel a way to make Kihyun want to do something else, but it never worked—the redhead was incredibly stubborn.

He had his back leaning against Kihyun’s legs as the shorter boy sat on one of the old metal chairs. Minhyuk was wearing one of Kihyun’s black sweatshirts—it had been forced on him once Kihyun had scolded him about it being cold outside and he should be wearing more than a shirt. He didn’t mind though—the sweatshirt was warm and smelled like Kihyun, so he gladly took it, tucking his knees under the fabric so they were pressed against his chest with the sweatshirt pulled over his legs.

“Next month is the school’s fall festival—I’ve already signed the club up for a booth so we can try and get some extra funds. Does anyone have any ideas for the booth?” said Hyungwon’s voice (Minhyuk wasn’t looking at him as he had his eyes trained on the phone in his hands). “Minhyuk, are you taking notes?”

“Yep.” Minhyuk was not. He was playing Fortnite.

“Oh really,” drawled Hyungwon. The blond didn’t need to see the lanky boy’s face to know the expression on it—it was, no doubt, a mixture of boredom and annoyance. “What was I just talking about?”

Minhyuk rolled his eyes, exasperated. After making sure his character was hidden in the fort he had built in the game, he looked at the black-haired boy who was sitting across from him, his gigantic lips pulled into his mouth. “Next month is the fall festival, got us a booth, are there any ideas,” he repeated back. “Asshole,” he added in Korean and turned back to his phone. He heard a cough from Kihyun that sounded a lot like a laugh.

Hyungwon, seeming unbothered, continued. “ _Are_ there any ideas?” he asked the room again.

“Kissing booth?” a female voice offered, giggling shortly after.

 “Oh, that would be up your alley, huh, Hyungwon?” Minhyuk raised his eyes to look across to Hyungwon again who was glaring back at him. “You could volunteer for it!”

“We could call it ‘The Frog Prince’,” added Kihyun from behind him.

Minhyuk leaned his head back onto Kihyun’s knees to grin at the other boy who looked like he was trying his best to be very serious about what he said, but his lips were twitching. Kihyun was, in every sense of the words, adorably perfect. “See? We even have a theme!” Minhyuk bit the tip of his tongue.

“That’s a great idea, Beth,” Hyungwon said, turning to the girl that had suggested it. He smiled at her and the girl visibly got flustered (which made Minhyuk roll his eyes). “ _But_ , the University doesn’t allow kissing booths—the last time they did it there was an outbreak of Mono. So, that’s a no go. Any other ideas?”

There was a murmur around the room as ideas were tossed around. During his outburst, Minhyuk’s character had died in his match and he released a loud sigh, though the only one who could hear it was Kihyun. “Can we go yet?” he asked, leaning his head back again into the other’s knees and looking up at the redhead who was peeking down at him in turn. “Please?”

“You’re fine,” sighed Kihyun, poking the back of Minhyuk’s head and pushing it back up from his knees. Minhyuk pouted to himself, shuffling his knees closer to rest his chin on them and searched for another game on his phone. To think, he could have been snuggling with the cute boy behind him instead of being at a stupid meeting. He puted harder—it was a cruel world he lived in.

“What about a Korean food stand?” asked someone else in the room.

“We’ve tried doing that before, but no one in the club has ever been able to cook well enough,” muttered Hyungwon.

“Kihyun can cook.”

Minhyuk popped his head up to look over at Hyunwoo, who normally stayed incredibly quiet in public settings, his comment surprising him. Minhyuk leaned back to look at Kihyun. “You can?” _And_ he can cook? What was Kihyun—crafted directly from God?

“I’m a pretty good cook,” replied Kihyun, shrugging his shoulders in nonchalance, but his face looked a bit smug.

“Would you be able to cook enough Korean food for a booth?” asked Hyungwon, leanig forward and resting his elbow on a very bony knee.

“If I have a kitchen,” said Kihyun. He poked the back of Minhyuk’s head roughly with his pointer finger, making his chin slam down on his neck. “And if Minhyuk helps me.”

“Wait, what?” The blond bobbed his head back in confusion looking around the room in mild alarm.

“Perfect, the club will be able to cover the costs of the food. Just let me know what you need,” said Hyungwon, tossing a thumbs up in Kihyun’s direction. “Moving on—.”

“Hey!” Minhyuk hissed, pulling his knees from the sweatshirt and scooting back so he was sitting next to the redhead’s chair on the floor to look up at him. He slapped his leg. “Don’t volunteer me for stuff! I have rights!”

Kihyun preformed one of the most epic eye rolls Minhyuk had ever seen. “Seriously? Are you trying to tell me you wouldn’t have spent the _entire_ time I would be cooking hovering over my shoulder anyway?”

Well. Kihyun had a valid point. Like he said before: where Kihyun goes, Minhyuk goes. Minhyuk pursed his lips into a line. “Okay, point, but—.”

“And didn’t you tell me that you can cook?” Continued Kihyun, towering over Minhyuk from his spot on the perched chair, raising an eyebrow. He seemed to enjoy the atypical height difference. “Or, did you lie about that like you did about recycling?”

“No, I can cook. Well, sort of. Does pancake mix count? Anyway—.”

“Cool, I’m glad we agree. We’ll use your kitchen.” Kihyun looked incredibly smug—like he knew that he had Minhyuk right where he wanted him.

Minhyuk sighed. “ _Fine_ ,” he whined, leaning over and resting his head against the shorter boy’s thigh. “Thank God you’re cute.”

The redhead snorted. He glanced around the room, most likely making sure that no one was looking in their direction, before taking his hand and carding it through Minhyuk’s hair. “Sexy,” he corrected, scratching the hair at the back of his neck, making the blond lean into the pleasant touch. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Minhyuk turned his face to grin at the other boy, looking mischievous. “You will, will you? That could mean a _lot_ of things, Kihyun.”

The tips of Kihyun’s ears turned pink, but he ignored it like a champ, leaning down a bit to whisper: “Guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

 

☼

 

After the meeting _finally_ ended, Minhyuk and Kihyun decided to take a walk around campus. It was already dark outside, what with autumn having arrived and the days beginning to get shorter. Even though it was a bit chilly (Kihyun’s sweatshirt helped keep him warm), the air was crisp and the stars were out, twinkling down on them as they walked slowly on the path—it made for a nice night.

Minhyuk glanced over at Kihyun, who was walking quietly at his side. The lighting was dim, but the boy still looked gorgeous—his skin clear, cheek bones high and his almond shaped eyes. Having the urge to feel closer, he took a chance and reached out, slowly intertwining his fingers with Kihyun’s.

When Kihyun felt the touch he looked to Minhyuk’s face, then down to their hands, before looking dead ahead. He couldn’t tell, but if he had to guess, Kihyun’s ears were probably red. “You’re so clingy,” snorted the redhead, though the statement had no bite and the shorter boy gripped lightly back with his own fingers, not letting go.

“Shut up, you know you like it,” teased Minhyuk, smiling as he swung their hands between them.

“Maybe,” amended Kihyun, glancing at him with the corner of his eye but a smile was clearly visible on his profile.

“Are you…” Minhyuk trailed off, looking at their hands for a moment. It felt warm. “Are you still feeling stressed out?”

Kihyun glanced at him, biting his top lip for a moment before letting it go. “Not really,” he said quietly, gripping Minhyuk’s hand tightly for a moment.

“So, did my stress relieving technique work?”

Kihyun coughed suddenly before he tried turning it into a laugh (it was a _little_ mean, but Minhyuk loved teasing Kihyun almost as much as he loved talking, which was a lot). He looked over at him with narrowed eyes. “You could say that,” Kihyun managed, smirking a bit, seeming to try and save face. He tugged Minhyuk’s hand in the direction of a picnic table a little ways from the walking path. “Let’s go over here.” Minhyuk let himself be pulled. “But for the record,” Kihyun added as he led the way, “I felt less stressed as soon as you came into the room.”

The smile that spread on Minhyuk’s face felt exactly how he felt on the inside. “I’m glad,” he said softly.

Once they reached the picnic table, their hands parted. Kihyun hopped up to sit on the table, feet resting on the bench as he leaned back on his hands to look up at the stars. Minhyuk sat next to his legs on the bench, putting his elbows on the table behind him and he looked up as well.

“There aren’t any clouds,” said Kihyun. The night was incredibly clear, the sky littered in thousands of little lights.

Minhyuk hummed in agreement as he looked, noticing the big dipper was right above them. It was very quiet and serene at this spot—no one else was around and the atmosphere felt so comfortable and serene.

_It’s because you’re with him_ , thought Minhyuk smiling to himself as looked at the sky. A gust of wind blew past, ruffling his hair and his clothes as he took a deep breath in, closing his eyes to breathe in the fresh night air, head still tilted up.

When he opened his eyes, he looked over to see Kihyun staring down at him from his spot on the table, eyes soft and looking at Minhyuk in a sort of awe. Minhyuk parted his lips to ask him something—he wasn’t sure what—when Kihyun interrupted him.

“You’re beautiful,” Kihyun said simply, not looking or sounding embarrassed. He stated it like it was a simple fact.

Minhyuk flushed to the roots of his hair. He would be lying to say he hadn’t received his fair share of compliments throughout his life—in fact, he received them quite often. But something about the way Kihyun had told him he was beautiful reached him deeper than anything else he had ever been told. “Thank you,” was all he managed say, feeling uncharacteristically embarrassed. He looked down for the moment, ready to make some silly joke, when Kihyun hit him with this:

“Will you be my boyfriend?”

Minhyuk’s head shot up, looking at Kihyun with wide eyes and mouth open. His heart pounded in his chest at the sudden eruption of excitement. _What?_

“I mean,” Kihyun began to stutter, looking around and seeming thrown off by Minhyuk’s sudden pause of surprise. “I mean, you don’t have to if—like—you don’t want to. There’s no pressure, I just thought—.”

“Yes,” Minhyuk whispered, looking at him. His heart was beating so fast.

“What?” Kihyun blinked.

Overwhelmed, Minhyuk jumped at him, tackling him so the short boy’s back hit the back of picnic table as he hugged tightly at his waist. “Yes, yes, _yes_! Oh my God, I’d love to, yes!” He started littering Kihyun’s face with kisses. One on each eye lid, on both of his cheeks, a couple on his forehead.

“Oh my God, calm down!” Laughed Kihyun though he didn’t move away from Minhyuk’s assault of affection. Kihyun wrapped his arms around Minhyuk’s shoulders, looking up at him once he stopped kissing every inch of his face. The blond stared down at him, smiling so broad he was sure that all of his teeth were showing, but he couldn’t help it—he was so damn _happy_.

Kihyun lifted his head, kissing Minhyuk’s lips lightly with his own before resting his head against the table again. “You’re so clingy,” the redhead teased again, smiling back at him, eyes forming into perfect crescent moons and accentuating the apples of his cheeks.

“And you like it,” Minhyuk teased in return, kissing Kihyun chastely back.

“Nah, I just like you in general,” shrugged Kihyun, lifting his chin with a smirk.

Minhyuk chuckled a bit, leaning back down so his chest rested against the other’s. “Same,” he whispered back, closing the distance.

Minhyuk hadn’t thought that his evening would end with him making out with his brand new boyfriend on a picnic table in the middle of campus, but he could honestly say he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any and all feedback is always greatly appreciated and I hope everyone is having as much fun reading this as I am having fun writing it! Seems like updates are most likely going to be on Sundays--I'm trying to be consistent! :D


	6. A Dazzling Place I Never Knew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kihyun goes to his first college party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: there's consumption of copious amounts of alcohol in this chapter.

“Did I tell you I have a boyfriend?”

“ _Yes_ , Min.”

It was a Friday and Minhyuk was at ‘A Little Taste of Osaka’. The restaurant was now closed for the night and he and his fellow coworkers were left to clean up after the last rush. He and Jooheon were walking from booth to booth, grabbing the dirty dishes to bring to the back for washing.

“You told me at least eight times today,” continued Jooheon, rolling his eyes at the blond as he stacked up soda glasses into a tower. The younger boy was sporting a bright pink band aid on his chin and a mild look of disdain.

“Yeah, but—,” Minhyuk began, grabbing the tower from Jooheon when it was handed to him.

“His name is Kihyun, he’s from Seoul, he’s really ‘hot’, you’ve been official for four days,” said Jooheon mechanically, grabbing Minhyuk’s shoulder and looking up at him. “And I’m _very_ happy for you, but I also want to go home sometime tonight so keep cleaning.”

“I am cleaning!” Exclaimed Minhyuk, holding up the glasses in his hands as if to show proof. “I’m just multi-tasking, which I’m super good at.”

“Cool story, now bring them to the back,” said the orange-haired boy, turning Minhyuk around and pushing him towards the kitchen. “Go, go!”

Minhyuk scowled as he let himself be pushed away. “Always so huffy,” he muttered.

“I’m not huffy!”

“Sure, sure,” Minhyuk sing-songed, stopping by another booth to grab the four plates left on top of it and stacking them under the glasses. He blew tuft of hair from his eyes and made his way to the back of the restaurant. “Door!” he shouted out of habit as he went through the swinging doors to enter the brightly lit kitchen.

“Jesus, there’s more?”

Minhyuk grinned at the blue-haired girl that was standing at the sink, hands soaking wet and slathered in soap bubbles. “’Fraid so,” he said, setting the stack he was carrying next to the silver basin. “Sorry Evee, Honey is bringing the last of them.”

Evee rolled her eyes as she angrily scrubbed at a plate with a Brillo pad. Minhyuk liked Evee. She had worked here as long as he had and she was normally the hostess (she had a bit too much of an attitude to be a waitress). She was the only white girl that worked in the restaurant and was majoring in Korean at Minhyuk’s University. She was normally good for a decent laugh to help break up the monotony of restaurant life—well, at least when she wasn’t hung over, which was often.

Minhyuk walked next to her, grabbing a white towel that had been hanging from a peg on the wall and started drying one of the freshly washed dishes. “Hey, Evee did you—.”

“Hey Evee, did you hear Minhyuk got a boyfriend?” Jooheon’s voice finished for him as he kicked open the door into the kitchen, hands teetering with dirty plates.

Minhyuk glared as Jooheon stacked his plates next to the other dirty dishes. “You’re supposed to call when you go through the doors! You could have killed us both.” He motioned at himself and Evee. “ _Killed_ us, Jooheon.”

Minhyuk was ignored as Jooheon perched himself on the other side of the sink, leaning against the marble counter and crossing his arms across his chest. “No, seriously, Evee—did you hear Minhyuk got a boyfriend?”

“ _What?_ ” The girl said, raising blue eyebrows. “First time I heard about it. Except for when I came in this morning—.”

“—and again when I clocked in,” Jooheon added.

“Every time we passed in the restaurant—.”

“—Or in the bathroom—.”

“ _Every_ time Minhyuk opened his mouth—.”

“Okay, okay, okay!” Minhyuk babbled, tossing the now dried plate a bit roughly into the clean stack. He couldn’t help the pout that settled in on his face. “I’m _excited_ , so sue me!”

“You, excited?” Jooheon grinned, dimples setting deep into his cheeks and eyes nearly disappearing. “Never.”

“Shut it, Joo,” Minhyuk looked at him dangerously. “Remember that I know _all_ your ticklish spots which is literally your entire body. Don’t think I won’t tickle you until you pass out again.”

The orange-hair boy’s eyes grew wide (well, as wide as they would go, which wasn’t very) and he squeaked. “No, not again,” he whispered, looking terrified as his arms fell limp to his sides. “I nearly peed myself, Min!”

The blond held his gaze for a few more moments, making sure his message had been delivered efficiently, before he went back to drying the dishes that were handed to him.

_Okay_ , he could admit it. He may or may not have been mentioning to everyone he knew about him and Kihyun’s new relationship whenever he got the chance. Maybe even to the point of being obnoxious, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this excited about _anything_ and when it got right down to it, he really liked Kihyun. Really, _really_ liked him. To the point that pretty much all he thought about was the redheaded boy, wanting to know what he was doing and when they could see each other again. He was, for lack of a better word, smitten. Kihyun was still acting a bit shy about the whole thing, but Minhyuk didn’t question for a minute that he felt the same way—and it made him feel wonderful.

“Do you guys have any plans tomorrow night?” Minhyuk’s thoughts were interrupted as he looked over to Evee, raising an eyebrow. “Okay, _besides_ hanging out with your boyfriend,” she added with a snort.

“I work until 8, but besides that and making out with Kihyun whenever I can, no,” Minhyuk shrugged.   

“ _Ew_ ,” said Jooheon, sticking out his tongue and Minhyuk, the more mature of the two, stuck his tongue out back at him.

“We’re throwing a party at my house, wanna come?” She asked, washing the last dish before handing it to Minhyuk to dry.

“Canadians drink?” asked Minhyuk absently, grabbing the plate.

“Yes, we drink,” snorted Evee. “After we’re done apologizing to each other and talking about hockey, of course. You can invite Kihyun if you want—there’ll be more than enough booze to go around.”

Minhyuk had already pulled out his phone to start messaging the redhead.

<Minhyuk: wanna pop your college party cherry???? (ten heart emojis)>

He hit send and put the phone back into his pocket. “Already done. I’m in. How about you, Honey Bunches of Oats?”

Jooheon pouted, trying to look angry but only succeeded in looking like a mildly annoyed Corgi. “I _hate_ it when you call me that. Yeah I’ll go.”

“Sweet,” said Evee, drying off her hands, the dishes completed. “Just don’t invite anyone underaged. I don’t want to get deported.”

“You can get deported to _Canada_?” Laughed Minhyuk.

“Yeah, and it would be _really_ embarrassing, so keep the invites for those twenty-one and older, ‘kay?” Minhyuk flashed her an ‘okay’ sign. “Cool. I’ll text you guys the details later.”

A few minutes later, Jooheon was locking up the restaurant and him and Minhyuk parted ways with Evee.

“Guess you can’t invite Changkyunnie,” commented Minhyuk, looking over at Jooheon. The younger boy had his beat up skateboard hooked under his arm as they walked next to each other (Minhyuk could tell that the other was fighting not to hop on the board, but remained on two feet so they could walk together).

“He wouldn’t go to the party to drink anyway—wouldn’t want to mess up his scholarships,” shrugged Jooheon. “He does all his under aged drinking in the security of our apartment.”

“Smart,” nodded Minhyuk, grabbing his phone only to see that Kihyun hadn’t replied yet. He decided to send him another message.

<Minhyuk: do you need me to explain what popping a cherry means (Ryan winking sticker)>

“We’re picking up Hyungwon on the way back,” said Minhyuk after he hit send (being noticeably eyed by Jooheon the entire time), keeping his phone in his hand for easy access.

As they headed towards the gas station, Jooheon continued staring at Minhyuk. “So,” the orange-haired boy began, “on a scale from one to ten—how much do you like Kihyun?”

“Four-hundred-and-eighty-two, if ten is the positive side of the scale.”

“ _Damn_ ,” whispered Jooheon, followed by a soft smile. “I know I gave you a lot of shit about it, but I _am_ happy for you, you know that right?”

“Thanks, Honey,” Minhyuk beamed.

“And you didn’t even meet him off of Grindr—so that’s a bonus.”

The blond felt like a snuffed-out candle. “Am I ever going to live that whole shit show down?” he sighed.

“ _Nope_ ,” emphasized Jooheon, grinning.

“Yay,” Minhyuk sighed again, wiggling his hands limply for emphasis. The two of them reached the Food n’ Fuel gas station shortly after, spotting Hyungwon’s lanky form leaning next to the glass doors clad in his neon blue polyester work vest, holding two slushies in his hands. “Hey, King String bean,” Minhyuk greeted as the two of them walked up.

The black-haired boy blinked at him tiredly. “Hey, you spastic excuse of a chihuahua,” Hyungwon greeted back, handing one of the plastic cups to Minhyuk, who excepted it excitedly. He took a sip—it was blue raspberry.

“Hey,” whined Jooheon instead of saying hello, pouting hard at Hyungwon. “Don’t I get one?”

Hyungwon stared at the other boy, releasing a sigh that lasted at least thirty-seconds. Once he was finished, he slinked back into the gas station, reappearing minutes later with another slushy and shoved it into Jooheon’s hand.

“Yes!” exclaimed Jooheon, taking a huge sip, only to grimace quickly at the sudden brain freeze he gave himself.

“Idiot,” Hyungwon said, with a hint of fondness as the three of them started heading back to Minhyuk and Hyungwon’s shared apartment.

“So, there’s a party at our co-worker’s house tomorrow,” said Minhyuk conversationally, taking another sip of his slushy as they walked on the sidewalk. “You in?”

“For free booze? Hell yeah, I’m in,” drawled Hyungwon, wrapping his thick lips around his straw. “Can I invite Hoseok?”

The blond couldn’t help the eye roll. If on his scale of liking Kihyun had him at 482, Hyungwon’s scale for his crush on his cousin was probably in the thousands. “If you can get him to go,” sighed Minhyuk. “He doesn’t normally drink though—empty calories, he says.”

“He could be the DD,” shrugged Hyungwon, running a hand through his wavy hair and looking off to the side, sucking on his straw continuously.

Minhyuk didn’t get the chance to comment further as his phone vibrated in his hand and a message from Kihyun popped up in his notifications, taking up his full attention. He swiped his phone screen instantly.

<Kihyun: No, I used Urban Dictionary, thanks. Though I don’t get why you would have used ‘popping a cherry’ with going to a party. When is it?>

Minhyuk grinned at the idea of Kihyun looking up the definition on Urban Dictionary, a frown probably settling on the redhead’s face and chin resembling a walnut as he read over it. Kihyun was truly too cute for words and the image made his heart warm up fondly. He handed his slushy to Jooheon who accepted it begrudgingly so Minhyuk could reply quickly with both hands.

<Minhyuk: tomorrow night!! wanna go w me?>

<Minhyuk: please??????>

<Minhyuk: pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease (cat rolling around on the ground sticker followed by two crying face emojis)>

<Kihyun: You would probably drag me there anyway. So, sure.>

<Minhyuk: (24 heart emojis)>

<Minhyuk: youre the best!!!!>

<Kihyun: I know.>

<Minhyuk: mwah>

Minhyuk bit the tip of his tongue as he pocketed his phone, grabbing his blue raspberry slushy back from Jooheon’s small hand and taking a large sip. This would be Kihyun’s first party—it was going to be _fun_.

 

☼

 

When Kihyun had talked to his parents on Skype at 4:30 that Saturday morning, they had asked him what he was doing that weekend. His reply had been: “Probably just studying.”, which was a blatant lie. His parents wouldn’t have been too pleased to find out that he was actually going to be attending a college house party (with his new boyfriend they didn’t know about, no less) and he knew it was better that they were kept in the dark—at least for now.

As he walked the familiar hallway of Minhyuk’s apartment complex, he found himself feeling a little antsy. He had never been to a house party before (back home, his drinking was almost always done at a bar) and his only knowledge he had about them came from American movies, which he didn’t feel like would be an accurate representation of what the experience would truly be like. They probably exaggerated in film.

…Right?

He bit his lip as he stopped in front of the apartment door, rapping his knuckles against it with three crisp knocks. It took half a heart beat before the door was swung fully open in one movement.

“Hey!” greeted the grinning face of Minhyuk. Kihyun’s eyes went a little wide once he set eyes on him. Minhyuk was wearing a red silk button up, the first three buttons left undone to show off his collar bones and a bit of his chest, the front of the shirt tucked into a pair of tight black jeans that housed rips all the way up to the blond’s thighs. He paired the outfit with his usual tussled hair and a dangling silver chain that ended under the red silk. He swallowed thickly at the sight, suddenly feeling like one of Pavlov’s dogs.

“It’s impolite the stare, you kn--,” Minhyuk had started to say, but was cut off by Kihyun taking a step forward into the apartment, wrapping his arms around the blond’s waist and leaning to kiss him soundly on the lips.

Minhyuk made a surprised sound at the sudden contact but pressed back eagerly a second later, mouth opening to let Kihyun’s tongue swipe briefly over his. Once they parted, Kihyun spoke a breath away from the other man’s lips. “Yes, I was staring,” he whispered, looking Minhyuk in the eye as he felt his ears start to turn pink under his red hair. But, like a champ, he ignored it easily. “You look amazing. That’s all I’m going to say.” He placed chaste kiss against the pink lips for good measure. “Got it?”

Minhyuk, who was sporting a light blush across his cheeks (which made Kihyun smug), opened his mouth to probably make some sort of teasing comment when a voice sounded from within the apartment:

“Can you guys _not_ make out in my fucking vestibule?” The bored voice of Hyungwon sighed. “That’d be mint, thanks.”

Minhyuk sighed, not moving his body away but pulling him further inside so he could shut the door with his foot. “Only you would use a word like ‘vestibule’,” the blond called over his shoulder, before looking at Kihyun again and gifting him with another kiss. “I swear, it’s like I’m rooming with an eighty-year-old woman who’s pissed that she lost at bingo again.”

Kihyun made a mental note to google the word ‘vestibule’ once he was in the safety of his own dorm room as Minhyuk grabbed his hand and pulled him along into the apartment (after he slipped off his shoes neatly, of course). He looked around and tongued his cheek at the random soda cans and snack bags that littered the space of the living room like garbage confetti.

“You guys are really hopeless when it comes to cleaning up after yourselves, aren’t you?” muttered Kihyun, deciding to keep his eyes trained on the attractive blond instead of the messy apartment—at least Minhyuk was _clean_. “One of these days I’m going to crack and just clean the place for you.”

“Only if you wear a maid’s costume,” chirped Minhyuk as he led them to the kitchen. The taller man must have felt the glare on the back of his neck that Kihyun was giving him as he added hastily: “I’m kidding!”

“Hey, shortie,” Hyungwon’s voice said. Once the two had entered the kitchen, Kihyun noticed that the lanky boy was leaning against the counter, sipping a drink out of a bright red, plastic cup. Kihyun couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the other man’s attire. He was wearing an incredibly tight white t-shirt with some intricate design pasted on it and…were those leather pants? He had also styled his black hair to be swept back away from his face and his skin looked flawless. Too flawless, if Kihyun were to be honest.

“Hey frog-boy,” said Kihyun back, eyebrow still raised. “Why the hell are you wearing leather pants? And do you have makeup on?”

Hyungwon opened his large lips to reply when Minhyuk cut him off, moving further into the room with his lithe form to stand next to the slightly taller man. “You’ll get why in—,” he paused, looking at the clock on their microwave (which had definitely seen better days) before continuing, “about ten minutes when our designated driver gets here.” Hyungwon glared tiredly at Minhyuk as the blond grabbed the cup from his hands and took a sip. “Are you pregaming without me? Make me one.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Hyungwon rolled his eyes, before taking his cup back and looking to Kihyun. “And I see even _you_ dressed up for the party—so stop giving me shit, small fry.”

The redhead scowled, glancing down at his own clothes. He was wearing a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, a semi-snug green v-neck and a black suede jacket. It was a bit different than what he normally wore on a day to day basis, but he didn’t really dress up for the party—he dressed up because he was seeing Minhyuk. Not that the other two men needed to know that, obviously.

“You’re just jealous that I’m prettier than you and I don’t have to try as hard,” smirked Kihyun, shrugging his shoulders.

“You got me,” Hyungwon deadpanned, blinking incredibly slowly at him.

“Okay, children,” Minhyuk scolded, walking over to the fridge. “And Kihyun is _definitely_ prettier than you, Won. Sorry not sorry.” The blond grinned, looking over to the redhead. “Want a drink?”

He tried to fight away the blush that wanted to spread on his face at the compliment and settled for another smirk instead. “Sure.”

“It’s going to have alcohol, you know,” Hyungwon said before sucking the rest of the contents of his cup into the wormhole that was his gigantic mouth. “Have you even drank before?”

Kihyun narrowed his eyes. “You realize that South Korea has one of the worst binge drinking cultures in the world, right?” he snipped, watching as Minhyuk took out a plastic container of orange juice from the fridge, followed by a bottle of cheap vodka from the freezer. “So, yeah, I’ve drank before, thanks.”

“But can that tiny body even _handle_ alcohol?”

Kihyun found himself tonguing his cheek again as he stared at the much taller boy. Normally their conversations consisted of them throwing insults at one another, but Hyungwon seemed particularly on edge this particular evening and was taking it to a new level.

As if reading his thoughts, Minhyuk released a sigh as he grabbed two plastic cups from the cupboard and set them next to the bottle of vodka. “Ignore him, Kihyun. He gets super bitchy whenever he’s anxious and he takes it out on everyone else.”

Kihyun raised his brows, turning to Hyungwon who had his lips pulled into his mouth. “What would you be anxious about?”

“I’m _not_ ,” snapped Hyungwon, looking rather annoyed. Suddenly, the sound of the doorbell rang through the apartment and the black-haired man visibly perked up. “I’ll get it,” he said and nearly ran straight out of the kitchen, much to Kihyun’s surprise as Hyungwon normally moved at the speed of a 100-year-old turtle.

Minhyuk laughed at Kihyun’s confused expressed as he poured the vodka and orange juice into the cups. Once they were both filled, he handed one to Kihyun, raising his own as he smiled around the rim. “And you’ll understand in three, two, one…”

“Hoseok-hyung is here!” Hyungwon called not a moment later in Korean.

“Ah,” nodded Kihyun. _Now_ it made sense. He took a sip from his own cup and the contents immediately burned his throat on the way down. He visibly grimaced, sticking out his tongue. “Oh my God—how much vodka did you put in here?”

“Half and half?” said Minhyuk, licking his lips and noticeably looking at Kihyun’s tongue. “You better put that away before I get tempted.”

Kihyun choked on his second sip he had taken when Hyungwon made an appearance back into the kitchen, followed shortly by one of the most muscular men he had ever seen.

“Hoseok-hyung, this is my boyfriend, Kihyun,” said Minhyuk, motioning with his large hand between them, speaking in Korean. Kihyun felt his chest melt at being introduced as Minhyuk’s boyfriend (especially to family), but he made sure not to show it.  “Kihyun, this giant wall of muscles is my cousin.”

“Hi!” greeted Hoseok, and Kihyun couldn’t help but think that incredible aesthetics and blinding smiles must be a common trait in the Lee family. Hoseok had ear length, neon pink hair that sat atop of a boyish face with kind looking eyes and a curved smiled while the rest of him looked like it was made by the Russians to fight off bears. The large man held out his hand for Kihyun to shake, bicep bulging against the taut fabric of his black t-shirt. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” said Kihyun back, extending his hand to shake the other’s and verbally hissed when Hoseok gripped his fingers hard enough to make his knuckles crack.

“Whoops, sorry!” The older man said, smiling apologetically and Kihyun noticed he had a definite lisp (thankfully, it was worse than his own, which made him feel a bit better) and let go of his hand, holding his own up in front of him. “I forget my own strength sometimes.”

“I don’t get how you forget,” said Minhyuk, taking a large swig from his drink. “Your arm muscle is as big as my face.”

“Nothing's as big as your face,” drawled Hyungwon as Minhyuk scowled at him, walking past Hoseok close enough that their sides brushed against each other. It was, in Kihyun’s opinion, obviously intentional as there was more than enough room for the thin man to move without touching the other. If Hoseok noticed, he hid it well as he just moved over and apologized for being in the way. “Anyone want a shot?”

“I do!” exclaimed Minhyuk, shooting his hand straight into the air with a hop and Kihyun noticed that the blond had finished his drink already. “Do you want one Kihyun? Oh,” he glanced down at the very full cup in Kihyun’s hand, “probably not, huh?”

“What do you expect, short people can’t handle booze well,” said Hyungwon, tossing Kihyun a smirk over his shoulder as he grabbed out two shot glasses.

Kihyun felt his eyebrow twitch, his competitiveness starting to boil over along with his annoyance with Hyungwon constantly calling him short (seriously, he called him short three times in ten minutes—how was that necessary?). Stealing his face, he pulled the cup up and chugged the rest of his drink, the hard liquor burning all the way from his throat to his stomach as he slammed the now empty plastic onto their corner. “I can handle my alcohol. Give me a shot,” he said, glaring at the lanky boy.

Hyungwon’s only response was a snort as he grabbed another shot glass from the cupboard to join the other’s. Minhyuk glanced at Kihyun only to say to him quietly as the playfulness left his husky voice, “You know that you don’t have to have one, right? I don’t want you to feel pressured into doing anything you don’t want to do.”

The redhead smiled at the other man, reaching out and pushing a loose blond strand behind his ear. “Don’t worry, I don’t do things I don’t want to do.”

“Oh my God, you guys are so _cute_.” The two of them looked over to Hoseok, the pink-haired man grabbing his own cheeks as he smiled at them, bearing all his very straight teeth. “I just want to squish you!”

Kihyun felt his face grow warm, which could only partially be blamed on the fair amount of alcohol that he just consumed when Hyungwon released a bark of a laugh. “If you call being gross ‘cute’, then, yeah, you’re right,” he said.

“Wonnie, no need to be mean,” scolded Hoseok, brow furrowing as Hyungwon looked at the older man, eyes a bit wide. “Don’t worry, you’ll find someone you want to be ‘gross’ with too, one day.”

An awkward chill fell over the kitchen as Hyungwon tried to laugh, but the sound came out hollow, making Hoseok look at him in confusion. Kihyun glanced between the two of them, finding himself feeling bad for Hyungwon—Minhyuk was right, Hoseok really had no clue that Hyungwon had feelings for him.

“Okay, I’m getting sober by the minute,” chirped Minhyuk, breaking the silence. He hopped next to Hyungwon, grabbing the bottle of vodka from the black-haired man’s hand. He looked at him and wiggled his eyebrows. “Watch a master mixologist at work,” he said, tossing the bottle from one hand to the other before pouring the vodka sloppily into the three small glasses.

And just like that, Minhyuk—the human version of the sun incarnate—completed changed the mood in the room. Kihyun snorted as he walked over to grab a shot glass. “I would stick with being a Kindergarten teacher,” he said, biting his lip as he fought a smile.

 

☼

 

When they finally made it to the party, Kihyun’s head was already feeling light, which helped eliminate the edge of his nervousness as their group of four walked up to the medium sized home. The music was loud enough that he could physically feel the bass pound through in waves from outside and once the door was opened, it felt as if the sound slapped him in the face.

“Hi!” Screamed the blue-haired woman he remembered as a hostess from ‘A Little Taste of Osaka’ as she motioned for them to come inside. The living area they came into was packed with people all around Kihyun’s age, some dancing, a couple making out in a corner of the room and multiple groups talking loudly with beers or mixed drinks in their hands. “Come in!” she shouted as she battled for her voice to be heard over the music before she closed the door. “There are Jell-O shots and other booze in the kitchen, a cooler of beers in here and two kegs outside! Help yourself!”

“Thanks, Evee!” Screamed back Minhyuk as he pulled Kihyun with him. He leaned over to speak in his ear. “Let’s go to the kitchen—have you ever tried a Jell-O shot before?”

“I have no idea what that is,” said Kihyun, trying to speak loud enough so he was heard but not loud enough to hurt Minhyuk’s ear. He evidently succeeded as Minhyuk nodded at him excitedly.

“Awesome, let’s go.” Minhyuk gripped his hand after he yelled to Hyungwon and Hoseok that they were going to go and get drinks before he was pulled along.

They managed to bob and weave through the relatively large mass of people in the living room, down a short hallway and eventually stumbling into a brightly lit kitchen where Kihyun’s eyes widened in shock. He had never seen so many different bottles of alcohol outside of a bar before, along with a massive tray of shallow cups filled with different colored gelatin.

“This is something else,” said Kihyun, the music sounding a little bit quieter in the new room, making it easier for him to talk. Minhyuk walked them over to the tray of cups.

“Yeah, I guess they went all out,” said Minhyuk. He motioned over the tray with a large hand like he was presenting a prize. “These, my adorable redhead, are Jell-O shots. They’re made with gelatin and vodka.” He grabbed himself a red filled cup before handing Kihyun a blue one. “They taste pretty awful, but I could never let you come to America without having at least _one_ of these little fuckers.”

Kihyun snorted, accepting the plastic container. He had some issues trying to get the gelatin out of the cup, but eventually managed to fenagle it into his mouth with his tongue before he swallowed it. It tasted like sugar and rubbing alcohol and he felt his face visibly contort in disgust after he managed to get it down, making Minhyuk burst into laughter.

“Shut up!” he exclaimed, though he felt laughter trying to bubble out of his chest. “That tasted _awful_ —why would people even _want_ these?”

“It’s a party staple, I think,” chuckled Minhyuk, though the taller boy was looking at Kihyun with such fondness in his eyes it made Kihyun ears feel warm. “Here, I’ll make it up to you and mix you something else, if you want.” He walked over to the myriad of alcohol bottles, glancing over a few. “What do you like?”

“Soju, but I doubt they’d have it here. I don’t care, just make me whatever you’re having,” he said, with a shrug, moving to stand next to Minhyuk, close enough that their sides touched. He leaned over, tilting his head to rest on his shoulder. His head was feeling pleasantly foggy. “You smell nice,” he commented, nuzzling his head into the shoulder.

“You’re very complementary today,” said Minhyuk, a grin clearly heard in his voice as he snaked an arm around Kihyun waist before he grabbed a bottle of rum out. “I like it—I’m a ho for complements, you know.”

“Wow, Minhyuk, way to be obvious in public.”

The two of them turned around to see a man with a stocky build, bright orange hair and dimples grinning at them from two meters away.

“Way to be a creep, Jooheon,” Minhyuk narrowed his eyes, but there was no bite in his voice and he giggled a moment later. “Hey, this is Kihyun!” he said excitedly, gripping onto Kihyun’s waist even harder as Jooheon moved in closer.

“Really, I had no idea.” Jooheon’s voice dripped with sarcasm as he rolled his eyes, before his mouth settled into a smile. “I’ve heard a lot about you—it’s nice to finally meet you in person. I’m Jooheon.”

“You’ve heard a lot about me?” Kihyun repeated, raising his eyebrows as he detached himself from the blond as he went to mix them drinks.

“I’ve heard a _ton_ about you.” The man nodded, walking over to the counter to grab two green Jell-O shots. He motioned at Kihyun with one in his hand. “Like, Minhyuk never shuts up about you. Ever.”

“Really now,” said Kihyun slowly, biting his top lip as he looked back at Minhyuk who was now facing away from him, shoulders stiffening noticeably at the conversation but seeming to try to act like he wasn’t listening. “What have you heard?” He asked, turning back to the other man.

“Well,” began Jooheon, sucking the gelatin into his mouth with a practiced skill of someone who had consumed many before. “That you’re an exchange student who he met at those shitty Korea club meetings, you really like being early for classes, how hot he thinks you are, that you’re smart and funny,” he listed before tilting back the other shot into his mouth, continuing to talk around it, “And when you asked him out he _literally_ told me twenty times that you were his boyfriend now—he told _everyone_ at work—.”

“Okay!” Minhyuk interrupted, face a bit pink as he handed Kihyun another red plastic cup filled with an unknown concoction. “Well, this has been fun, Honey, but we’re gonna go—.”

“Wait, I’m having fun,” grinned Kihyun, looking back to Jooheon. “So, he said I was hot, huh?”

“Not just hot, but—.”

“Bye, Jooheon!” yelled Minhyuk, grabbing Kihyun’s free hand with his own and all but dragging him out of the kitchen. He could hear the orange-haired man laughing behind him and he couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“Aw, Minhyuk,” he laughed as they made their way back to the loud living room, but his voice was lost in the pounding music. He would have to tease the blond later, and he _definitely_ would (even though he absolutely thrived off of the idea of Minhyuk talking about him to other people—it boosted his ego and made his heart pound at the same time). They made their way to a rather shabby couch that was no longer occupied at one side of the room and the two placed themselves onto one end of it.

Once they were seated, he raised the red cup to his nose to take a sniff. He leaned over to shout into Minhyuk’s ear. “What is this?”

“Rum and coke!” He shouted back and Kihyun noticed there was still a pretty blush on Minhyuk’s cheeks and it made him want to kiss him. Kihyun licked over his lips as he watched the other glance around the room and he pondered whether or not he wanted to act on his urges in public when he saw the blond’s face break out into a grin as he seemed to spot something of interest across the room.

Minhyuk leaned over to say in his ear, “Hey, wanna play a drinking game?”

Kihyun bobbed his head back, his vision spinning for a second at the sudden action. He squinted to focus. “What kind of game?”

Minhyuk raised his large hand and pointed across the room to one of the corners, where he saw that Hyungwon and Hoseok huddled together, the taller of the two leaning against the wall with a hand near the other’s head, the other hand holding a drink he had accosted from somewhere. “Every time Hyungwon runs a hand through his hair while he talks to Hoseok, you take a swig. You in?”

Kihyun burst into a fit of laughter at the suggestion before he grinned at Minhyuk. “Okay, that sounds fun,” he said into Minhyuk’s ear, intentionally letting his lips brush against the shell as he spoke and he saw the blond fight a shiver. He snaked his arm around Minhyuk’s waist as he snuggled into his side immediately after.

The blond beamed at him, seeming to bask in the physical attention before he noticed Hyungwon moved his hand from the wall to swipe through his hair as he clearly leered at Hoseok. “Oh! Take a drink!”

And that’s what the two did for an extensive amount of time. It didn’t take long for Kihyun to realize that when Minhyuk seemed to mix drinks, he had a tendency to put more alcohol than whatever he was mixing it with as his mouth was getting numb from the rum. But he couldn’t find himself caring.

Kihyun was very, _very_ drunk.

 

☼

 

When Minhyuk had suggested they play his drinking game, he hadn’t realized that it was more likely for them to die of alcohol poisoning than them having fun with how many times the living beanstalk would fling his massive hand through his hair as he tried to flirt with an oblivious Hoseok. He had to go back two more times to refill their drinks and before he realized it, he was incredibly drunk.

He also found out a few new things about his boyfriend. First off, it appeared that Kihyun _really_ couldn’t handle his alcohol well. Second, Kihyun was very… _bold_ when his inhibitions were lowered. They had been siting side by side on the couch for the majority of the party, but eventually the redhead had pulled Minhyuk to sit on his lap and Kihyun was giggling. _A lot_.

The party continued on and eventually Minhyuk had enough foresight to switch their drinks to just straight soda to try and sober themselves up a little bit, but it seemed as though they were past the point of no return.

Minhyuk found himself much later in the night, still perched on Kihyun’s lap as he cooed over the other boy, carding his fingers through his hair, while littering his face with kisses and talking into his ear. He normally was able to control his obvious attraction to Kihyun in public settings, but the alcohol was making it nearly impossible—it didn’t help that the redhead was being just as touchy as Minhyuk, much to his absolute delight. It made for a wicked combination.

“You’re so pretty,” Minhyuk cooed again, placing a kiss on the side of Kihyun’s neck, the other boy giggling at him as he pulled Minhyuk’s face from his neck.

“I know, right?” he teased back. He grinned at Minhyuk, before diving forward, capturing Minhyuk’s lips into a suddenly intense, but very sloppy kiss to which Minhyuk reciprocated immediately. He found himself moaning, the sound being drowned out by the music in the room but vibrating against the other’s mouth as he snuck his hand into Kihyun’s thick hair, tongues slipping against each other and teeth clashing clumsily. Minhyuk gripped the other’s neck, pressing their faces together as close as possible as their mouths continued to move together. He felt Kihyun slip his hand into one of the rips on his thighs and his body quivered as the hand massaged his skin. It was hot and he wanted more.

When Minhyuk sucked Kihyun’s pouty lower lip into his mouth, eventually pulling it with his teeth before letting it go, he saw that the other’s eyes were completely blown, the pupil so large it only left room for a sliver of the brown iris. Kihyun panted slightly as they stayed parted, licking over his lower lip as if to try and keep the taste of Minhyuk on his tongue.

“Can we go somewhere?” Kihyun eventually asked in his ear, before he let his mouth travel down to lick at Minhyuk’s neck, the move was sloppy and careless but everything that Minhyuk wanted.

“God, yeah—here, give me a second,” Minhyuk said back, placing a kiss on Kihyun’s lips (he missed the first time) and crawling off the shorter man’s lap. “I’ll be right back,” he said to him before he stumbled away, making his way to the right-hand corner of the room before he interrupted the bubble Hyungwon and Hoseok had created for themselves.

He blinked his eyes as he tried to focus, noticing an incredibly drunk Hyungwon leaning against a very sober Hoseok as the younger of the two continuously kept groping the muscles of Hoseok’s arms (“They’re so _big_ , hyung.”). Minhyuk held out his hand, palm up.

“Keys,” he slurred out as loudly as he could, proud that he managed to remember Korean in his inebriated state. He decided he would celebrate this cognitive achievement by shoving his tongue as far as he could into his boyfriend’s mouth as soon as possible.

“You’re _not_ driving,” exclaimed Hoseok, openly offended by the suggestion as he gripped on Hyungwon’s waist as the black-haired boy lost his balance after a fairly aggressive grope to Hoseok’s chest.

“I don’t want it to drive, you idiot, I’m not stupid!” exclaimed Minhyuk back, also feeling offended as he swayed a bit as he stood. “I just want access to your backseat!”

“Oh, no, no, no, no.” Hoseok shook his head, his hair a pink blur. “You are _not_ hooking up with your boyfriend in _my_ precious Nissan Altima. No, not happening.” He swung Hyungwon’s skinny arm over his muscled shoulders, holding the other’s weight as Hyungwon grinned drunkenly at the contact. “Okay, kids, party is over. All of you are tanked—I’m taking you back to the apartment.”

That could work—Minhyuk had a bed there. “ _Fine_ ,” he grit out, moving back over to Kihyun as quick as his drunk body would allow. He found the other resting his head on the back of the couch, looking up at the ceiling with some fascination. He grabbed the other’s hand once he was within reach. “Come on, Kihyun.”

“Huh?” the other boy said in confusion, but managed to get upright none-the-less as he allowed himself to be pulled from the living room to the cool fall air outside.

“Wanna sleep over?” Minhyuk asked, pulling the boy close as they walked (well, stumbled), over to Hoseok’s car that was parked on the street near Evee’s house. He watched as Kihyun nodded almost comically fast, but seeming to regret it shortly after as his body swayed with the motion which made Minhyuk grip him more.

They managed to get into the backseat of the car, Minhyuk sitting against the door and Kihyun putting himself into the middle seat. Without caring that he had an audience, Minhyuk turned the other’s face towards his and crashed their lips together.

“Oh my God, _REALLY_?” Hoseok could be heard saying as he struggled to get Hyungwon’s long limbs into the car.

Minhyuk ignored the outburst, but pouted when Kihyun parted from him. He watched as the other grinned at him, reaching across his body to grab the seatbelt and locking it in place. The redhead leaned forward, whispering into Minhyuk’s ear, “Safety first,” before he sucked his earlobe into his mouth, biting it and letting it go only to repeat the process all over again. Minhyuk moaned.

“Stop, stop, stop!” Hoseok scolded, finally getting into the driver’s seat and buckling his own seatbelt after he made sure Hyungwon was safely secured in his. The lanky boy had his head lulled onto his own chest, seeming to have finally passed out. “I’m never doing this again if you keep making out in the backseat!”

It must have been hard being the only sober person in a car full of drunk college students, but Minhyuk decided he would possibly save time to feel guilty about it later. They messily made out in the backseat of his cousin’s car, tongues and mouths everywhere exposed skin was seen before somehow making their way into Minhyuk’s bed where they continued their drunken kisses there.

As much as Minhyuk wanted to get into the other’s pants, sometimes people just drink too much where it isn’t possible for either parties to truly fulfill their urges. The night ended with both of them being shirtless, passed out into each other’s arms on the twin sized mattress after a ridiculously long make out session, Minhyuk enjoying the pleasant warmth of a body pressed against his own.           

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and we finally got to meet Hoseok!! Yay!! Updates should come on Sunday's as I'm trying to be consistent. Any feedback is always appreciated as it gives me life. :D Thank you for reading!!


	7. It's Crystal Clear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after the party, Minhyuk and Kihyun spend their Sunday together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning! There is smut in this chapter. Just, uh, thought I'd let ya know.

Minhyuk really didn’t want to open his eyes. His head was pounding to the point it felt like it was pulsating, an impending hangover no doubt on its way from the prior night’s events. He had absolutely no idea what time it was, but his guess was probably midafternoon. What he _did_ know was the fact that there was a warm body pressed against his bare chest, his long arms wrapped around the other, him holding on like it was a large teddy bear.

He smiled as he finally opened his eyes, his gaze falling on the red hair at Kihyun’s neck. He squeezed his arms a little tighter—not enough to disturb the other’s slumber but enough to make sure there was no space in between their bodies and lightly pressed his forehead against the redhead’s nape.

Waking up next to someone, Minhyuk found, was a wonderful thing. Even though his head felt like it had had an intimate encounter with a brick wall, it was hard not to instantly ignore everything else and just bask in the fact that he had his boyfriend snuggled up in his arms like he was born to be held by him.

He _really_ didn’t want to get out of bed, but he really had to pee and knew he could definitely use some mouthwash and a shower, so begrudgingly he pulled himself away, making sure to pull his down comforter up and over Kihyun so he could continue to sleep, kissing his temple before he left.

He spent the next twenty minutes swiftly showering, brushing his teeth, taking a maximum dose of Advil before dressing in comfy sweatpants and a loose t-shirt. He then made his way to the kitchen to make breakfast for Hyungwon and Kihyun, only to be surprised when he found that the room was already occupied.

“Hoseok-hyung?” he asked, eyebrows raised. He hadn’t realized he had slept over.

Hoseok turned around from his spot at the stove, spatula in his hand as he paused what he was doing. He smiled at him while exclaiming, “You’re alive! How’s the hangover?”

Minhyuk walked over to stand next to the older man, looking into the frying pan to see that he was making pancakes. “Could be worse, I guess—I took Advil though so it should be okay. Are you making pancakes?”

“Of course! It’s pancake Sunday,” said Hoseok, still smiling before adding a fresh pancake to a massive stack on a plate next to the stove. There appeared to be close to thirty piled so far. “I have to leave soon since I have a client I need to train, but I was worried you guys wouldn’t eat anything after all that drinking.”

Minhyuk pursed his lips into a thin line as his cousin poured more batter into the frying pan. He glanced over to the couch, which was free of any blankets or pillows. “Sooo…” he trailed off before continuing with: “Where did you sleep last night?”

Hoseok’s muscled shoulders tensed for a moment before relaxing again. “Uh, well—you probably don’t remember, but Hyungwon passed out in the car so I had to carry him up and I ended up tucking him in. He sort of latched onto me and…” Hoseok also pursed his lips as he didn’t elaborate further.

Minhyuk hummed in response, walking around Hoseok to his other side to grab a pancake from the towering plate, taking a bite out of it and talking around it. “So, you’re saying you snuggled my roommate-slash-best friend for multiple hours out of obligation or…?”

“I mean,” Hoseok stuttered, his blushing face not matching his massive body. “I didn’t want to move him and wake him up! What would you have done?”

Minhyuk fought the laugh that wanted to bubble out of his chest. “Hyung, have you _heard_ Hyungwon’s alarm clock? It blasts at him at, like, a hundred-and-fifty decibels and he _still_ sleeps through it. Plus, you can bench, what? Two-fifty?” He raised an eyebrow. “Hyungwon’s 130 pounds soaking wet. You could have moved him if you wanted to and you know it.”

Hoseok pouted as he flipped the pancake, the side facing up a little burnt. “He’s comfy,” he muttered quiet enough that Minhyuk almost didn’t hear it.

The blond smiled at the other. He didn’t want to meddle, as much as he felt all Hoseok and Hyungwon needed to do was fucking _talk_ to figure out what they wanted from each other, but he felt that it should be when both parties are ready for it. “Well,” he began, shoving the rest of the pancake into his mouth, “maybe you should think about things, hm?” Hoseok nodded shortly, not looking at him and clearly still embarrassed. He reached out and wrapped his arm around the broad shoulders and hugged his side. “Thanks for getting us home safely, by the way.”

Hoseok looked up, still flushed but he grinned at him nonetheless. “You’re welcome. I _really_ could have lived without seeing you aggressively make out with your boyfriend, though. Seriously, I thought there would be blood with how you guys were going at it. Does he always bite that much?”

It was Minhyuk’s turn to blush as he looked past the other’s face and he slowly slipped his arm off. He ignored the question and replied with a somewhat awkward: “Uh, yeah, sorry?”

Hoseok laughed musically before he added the last pancake to the stack, turning off the burner afterwards and removing the pan. “You can make it up to me by coming to work out with me one of these days.”

Minhyuk visibly grimaced. “Yeah, I’ll get back to you on that one—the last time we worked out I couldn’t walk for two days because my thighs felt like they were smashed by a steam roller.”

“That’s because you don’t do it enough,” said Hoseok seriously. “Anyway, I’ll let you do the dishes since I need to scoot. Make sure you wake up Hyungwon, okay? I’m pretty sure he works at 5.”

Minhyuk glanced at the clock on the microwave and saw it was a little before 3pm. “Don’t worry, I will,” said Minhyuk with a smile.

After he walked Hoseok out, he shoved another plain pancake into his mouth before plating a few, drizzling maple syrup on top and grabbing a glass of water. He walked carefully back to his bedroom and cracked open the door to find Kihyun still asleep in his bed, snoring quietly.

He grinned to himself as he walked over, setting the plate and water onto his bedside table before he sat down in the small space open in front of Kihyun’s stomach and running a hand through the redhead’s hair. Kihyun didn’t budge.

Grinning still, he leaned forward to the shorter boy’s ear. “Kihyun,” he whispered, lips brushing against the shell of his ear as he spoke. “It’s time to wake up.”

Kihyun’s only response was a grumble at the back of his throat, shifting his body slightly as his eyes remained closed.

Minhyuk held back a laugh before he leaned forward again, kissing Kihyun’s temple, then speaking again into his ear, “Babe, let’s get up, okay?”

Evidently, Kihyun’s ears could turn red even when he was barely awake as Minhyuk noticed they changed color before he even opened his eyes. He watched Kihyun blink blurredly at him as he rolled onto his back, stretching and trying to not look embarrassed at Minhyuk’s use of the nickname.

“Mornin’,” he said quietly, face adorably swollen from sleep and lips a bit bruised from their kissing the night before. It felt like a crime against humanity to not envelop the other boy in a hug, so Minhyuk didn’t even fight the urge.

“Good morning,” he cooed back, wrapping his arms around the narrow shoulders and nuzzling into his neck. “I brought you some pancakes and a glass of water—you should try to eat something.”

“How are you always so chipper in the morning?” Kihyun asked, the question sounding rhetorical as he sat up after Minhyuk released him, still shirtless and dressed in his jeans from the night before. His red hair was standing up every which way, effectively defying gravity and Minhyuk had to fight the urge to flail at the scene in front of him.

“It’s a gift,” quipped Minhyuk, answering the question anyway. He pointed at the pancakes and looked at Kihyun. “Eat,” he ordered, before he stood up, walking over to his dresser.

He fished through a couple of drawers, grabbing out a pair of black sweat pants, an oversized long sleeved shirt in white and a pair of brand new boxer briefs he had been saving for a special occasion (and if dressing his gorgeous boyfriend in his own clothes wasn’t a special occasion, he didn’t know what was). He turned back around to find Kihyun slowly shoveling pieces of pancake into his mouth, chewing with his almond shaped eyes closed.

He smiled at him fondly, setting the stack of clothes next to him on the bed. “Here are some clean clothes—you can take a shower after you eat. I found a new toothbrush for you and set it on the counter in the bathroom next to some pain killers if your head hurts.”

Kihyun opened his eyes again and nodded, still seeming a bit sleepy as he continued to chew. Minhyuk couldn’t help but notice that the other had put so much food into his mouth that his cheeks puffed out on both sides. Minhyuk grabbed at his chest, overwhelmed at the flood of affection that suddenly consumed every fiber of his being.

“Yoo Kihyun, I think you’re trying to kill me with how cute you are,” he groaned, reaching over and placing both his hands on the full cheeks and kissing him chastely. “Seriously, I’m dying over here!”

Kihyun flushed. “M’not cute. You’re a lot to handle in the morning,” he muttered, voice muffled by the amount of pancake still in his mouth. He swallowed it a moment after. “I never thought you’d be the one to be taking care of me in the morning. It’s…nice,” he finished, looking to the side as he seemed to try and find his composure.

“I’ve lived my whole life for this moment.” Minhyuk grinned, kissing Kihyun again. He really liked a sleepy Kihyun—he was very compliant. “You can thank me by spending the day with me? We can order pizza and watch movies—I’ll drive you home later so you don’t have to take the bus and I’ll make sure it won’t be too late. Will you stay?” Minhyuk put on his best puppy dog eyes, blinking slowly and pouting out his lips as he swayed little, waiting for Kihyun’s to respond.

Kihyun bit at his top lip, seeming to think for a moment, before replying in the same way he often did in his KakaoTalk messages. “Sure.”

Minhyuk released a loud, high pitched squeal, flailing his large hands in excitement before reaching down to envelop Kihyun in a hug, peppering his face in kisses.

“Hey, watch the pancakes!” Kihyun exclaimed, laughing shortly after. When Minhyuk pulled away to grin at the other boy, he found Kihyun smiling at him beautifully as he continued to laugh at Minhyuk’s antics. “You _literally_ sounded like a dolphin just now.”

Minhyuk gasped, motioning to his large pile of whales in the corner of his room before holding a finger to his lips. “Shhh, don’t say that in front of the children—they’ll get jealous.” He laughed a little before moving towards the door. “I’m going to try and wake up Prince Naveen, you better be done eating and in the shower when I’m done.”

“…Prince Naveen?”

Minhyuk turned around to give a disappointed look at Kihyun’s confused face. “That’s the Prince from _The Princess and the Frog_ , Kihyun.” He turned back around and walked out of the room, calling over his shoulder, “We need to broaden your Disney horizons, babe.” He heard Kihyun choke on a bit of pancake and he snickered to himself as he moved to Hyungwon’s room.

When he opened the door, he saw a large lump on the bed completely covered in multiple blankets in the dimly lit room. It wasn’t moving. With a sigh, he entered, closing the door behind him.

He walked up to the bed and climbed onto it, sitting on his knees as he poked lightly at Hyungwon’s side. “Hyungwon,” he said, gently. Not surprisingly, there was no movement. He gripped at his waist with his hands and shook the form. “Hyungwon, you need to get up.” Still nothing.

He sighed again. He normally would use more violence with his technique for waking Hyungwon up as he normally didn’t respond to anything short of a slap to his ass, but Hyungwon had been on edge yesterday and most likely would be hung over—hitting him seemed like a cruel punishment. He pursed his lips.

“Hyungwon!” he said, louder, but not shouting. He blinked when he saw a small rustle under the blankets.

“Go away,” croaked the muffled voice of Hyungwon and Minhyuk instantly frowned at the sound. To anyone else, the tone would have probably been taken as if he was just tired and didn’t want to be woken up, but Minhyuk knew better—Hyungwon sounded sad.

Inhaling deeply, he released the breath in an epic sigh. “All right, I’m coming in,” he announced, pulling the blankets up far enough so he could enter the fabric fortress. He covered them both, blanket pulled over from head to toe and scooched himself against Hyungwon’s back, becoming the big spoon by wrapping his arm around the other. It was definitely not the same as hugging Kihyun, but Minhyuk knew, even though Hyungwon wouldn’t admit it, the younger boy needed some physical contact at that moment.

Minhyuk and Hyungwon had been friends since the 5th grade right from when Hyungwon’s family emigrated to the United States for his Dad’s job. Since then, they had always been extremely close and Minhyuk could say that he honestly loved Hyungwon (platonically, of course) and he was one of the people he cared about the most. Seeing him sad was one of the things that was hard for Minhyuk to handle.

“You’re a terrible listener,” mumbled Hyungwon, voice clearer now that they were both under the blankets.

“Yeah, well, you sounded like you needed a hug,” mumbled Minhyuk into his neck. “You’ve been acting weird since yesterday night—and you were being a total dick, by the way.”

Hungwon groaned deep in his throat, sounding absolutely miserable. “I know, don’t remind me.” The blond felt Hyunwon rubbing his head into the pillow. “My head feels like a B52 crash landed into it, but I still remember everything.”

Minhyuk knew exactly why the black-haired boy acted the way that he did, but he asked anyway. “What’s going on with you, Won?”

Hyungwon sighed through his nose, remaining quiet for a few moments. Eventually, he spoke up quietly. “I just…I really like him, Minhyuk.”

_Tell me something I don’t know_ , he thought. “Are you going to do anything about it?” he asked, speaking just as softly. The other boy didn’t respond, just merely pressed his back a little further into Minhyuk’s chest, to which he tightened his grip on his small waist. He wanted to sigh, but held it in. “I really think you two need to talk, but I’m not going to try and force you—and that’s all I’m going to say.” Like he said before, he wasn’t going to meddle.

He heard Hyungwon make a noise at him, not a reply but something to show he had at least heard what he had said. The blond shifted slightly, feeling Hyungwon’s ribs dig into his forearm. “Ugh,” he said after a bit of silence, “you’re so _fucking boney_.”

He heard Hyungwon scoff. “Like you’re one to talk—we’re basically built the same.” The other shifted himself as if to make a point. “Feels like I have a human chopstick trying to cuddle with me.”

Minhyuk rolled his eyes. “I’m _lean_. You’re just skinny—big difference. You know that you work today, right?”

“Yeah, I do at 5,” Hyungwon grumbled.

He hummed in response. “Then you should get up. It’s probably close to 3:30 already.” He pulled away and finally sat up, removing him and Hyungwon from the blanket cocoon, leaving the other boy exposed to the elements. He heard him groan again dramatically and Minhyuk made an incredulous noise when he looked down at the thin frame on the bed. He had slept with his clothes on from the party. “Jesus Christ, only you would be able to fall asleep in fucking _leather_ pants. Is this some kind of weird kink I haven’t heard of?”

Hyungwon drug his body up into a sitting position next to him, looking tired but the corner of his mouth twitching upwards. “I look fucking amazing in these and you know it.”

“That has nothing to do with sleeping in them, but whatever,” said Minhyuk, raising an eyebrow. “And you’d look beautiful in a garbage bag, but, alas, you are not my type.”

The lanky boy snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, your type is short, red haired and super full of himself, but you do you.”

“I will, thank you,” Minhyuk grinned, “and I’ll do him, too. Oh, speaking of which—.”

“ _Please_ don’t tell me about your sex life.”

“Wasn’t gonna, you perv,” said Minhyuk as he leaned in a bit closer as Hyungwon arched an eyebrow in his direction. “What I was going to say is I want you to apologize to Kihyun. You were an utter ass to him yesterday for no real reason besides for you just being a jerk. Do it for me, ‘kay?” He finally stood up from the bed, stretching his arms above his head as he watched Hyungwon pull his puffy lips into his mouth before giving him a barely noticeable nod. “Okay, good talk. You should eat something before you go to work—there’re pancakes in the kitchen.”

Hyungwon visibly grimaced before collapsing back onto the bed, his thin arm draped over his eyes. “Don’t mention food. I never want to eat anything again.”

“You’re the biggest drama queen, you know that? Well, suite yourself, I guess.” He shrugged as his face shifted into a grin before he added: “Hoseok made them.”

He watched as Hyungwon slowly moved his arm away, revealing one large eye as it looked at him. “Well. Maybe I’ll have a few.”

“That’s what I figured, you predictable fucker.”

 

☼

 

Kihyun let the warm water fall over his face as he stood on the off-color tiles of the shower. He was definitely feeling hungover, but he at least didn’t feel like he needed to spend the entire day dry heaving into a toilet (small victories).

He felt himself flush suddenly at the memories that flowed into his mind from the night before. There was no doubt he had drunk too much—the most he had probably drank in the last couple of years, but he managed to still remember the evening’s events. He remembered Hyungwon being a moody bastard to him before he felt the need to inhale at least three shots of vodka in less than an hour, before the party even started. Once they arrived, he consumed even _more_ alcohol, when the shots he had prior would have more than sufficed (truth be told, he handled alcohol _really_ poorly).

Then he remembered attaching himself to Minhyuk like he was some sort of obsessed, red haired koala and proceeding to make out with him on a stranger’s couch. And then in the backseat of Hoseok’s car. And then in Minhyuk’s bed. Evidently, keeping control over his ridiculously massive attraction to Minhyuk was not something that drunk-Kihyun was into doing. On the bright side, at least Minhyuk was just as bad as he was.

Eventually, he stepped out of the shower, drying himself with a towel that he hoped was at least semi-clean. After his body was fully dry, his eyes fell onto the neat stack of clothes that the blond had grabbed for him to wear and he couldn’t help but smile. It felt—maybe the word was romantic?—to wear his boyfriend’s clothes. Normally, he hated even the idea of wearing something of someone else’s (seriously, how would he know if it was actually _clean_?), but wearing Minhyuk’s clothes didn’t even faze him. In fact, he _loved_ the idea of it, but he always seemed to be finding exceptions when it came to the cheerful and beautiful blond.

_You really like him, don’t you?_ He thought to himself as he continued to look at the clothes. Honestly, he may have asked himself that question, but he didn’t even have to think about the answer as it was a definite, resounding yes and Kihyun, though he doubted would admit it, was _excited_.

Feeling as if he had dawdled long enough in his own thoughts, he finally put on his borrowed clothes. He brushed his hair and took some pain reliever as a precaution as he brushed his teeth. Once he deemed himself clean and presentable enough, he exited the bathroom and walked into the hallway, only to meet up with Hyungwon immediately who was still clad in his clothes from the evening before, leather pants and all.

“Oh,” said Hyungwon, eyes a little wide. “Uh. Hi.”

“Hi,” greeted Kihyun, stopping dead in his tracks as he stared at the taller man. There was a silence.

“Hey,” Hyungwon began as he shifted on his feet as he motioned to the door near the bathroom. “Could I, um, talk to you for a second? In here?”

The redhead raised an eyebrow slowly. Well, he wasn’t expecting that. Eventually he nodded, following the other into the bedroom. Not surprisingly, Hyungwon’s room was incredibly messy and looked as if it had never been graced by the presence of a vacuum, but for the sake of the situation, he kept his comments to himself, though he couldn’t stop himself from wrinkling his nose. After he had walked far enough into the room, Hyungwon walked around him to close the door, before turning back to Kihyun.

He watched the black-haired man chew on his lip for a moment, not speaking, before Kihyun decided to break the silence. “So, what did you want to talk about?” he asked.

Hyungwon didn’t reply as he pulled his lips into his mouth, appearing to have some sort of internal struggle about something. He released his lips, followed by a long breath as he raised a hand to run it through his hair, which Kihyun knew was a flirtatious gesture generally but in this case it showed his nervousness. Large eyes shifted around the room, still not saying anything.

“Well, if you don’t have anything to say,” shrugged Kihyun, moving towards the closed door.

“Wait,” said Hyungwon, grabbing onto his shoulder to turn him back around. “Ugh, shit, I’m really bad at stuff like this! Just gimme a second.” The redhead looked at him blankly, utterly lost. However, it really did seem as if Hyungwon had something at least mildly important to tell him, so he humored him. Crossing his arms across his chest, he leaned his weight onto one foot and stared at Hyungwon, waiting.

Hyungwon sighed, scratching at the side of his nose. “I just,” he began, finally raising his large eyes to looking into Kihyun’s, “I just wanted to say sorry. For last night, I mean. I realize we normally give each other shit, but I was being an ass to you last night and it wasn’t right. So, I’m sorry.”

Kihyun’s eyebrows raised to his hairline—that was _not_ what he was expecting to be told. He tongued the inside of his cheek, looking off to the side, staring at a hamper that was filled to the brim with clothes, gathering his thoughts briefly. “Yeah, you kind of were,” he muttered, slowly moving his eyes back. “But, I didn’t really take it personally, so don’t worry about it.”

He watched as relief seemed to wash over Hyungwon’s features. He wasn’t sure if it was relief that Kihyun wasn’t upset at him or relief that he had managed to get the words out of his mouth, but it was relief nonetheless.

“Can I ask you something, Hyungwon?”

The black-haired man blinked. “What?”

He knew it really wasn’t his place, but the question came out of his mouth anyway. “What the hell is going on with you and Hoseok?”

He watched as the massive mouth opened and closed multiple times, seemingly thrown off by the question. Eventually, he managed to say, “Did Minhyuk tell you something?”

Kihyun snorted. “He did, but it’s not like he would even need to. I have a set of eyes and can see the way you look and act around him.”

The expression that crossed the man’s face looked pained, mixed with embarrassment. Hyungwon turned his face to the floor, looking at his own feet. “Hoseok is oblivious,” he mumbled. He didn’t say anything further.

“ _That_ I could also see,” sighed Kihyun. “But, he’s never going to know what you’re feeling for sure unless you tell him, right?” Hyungwon opened his mouth, looking as if he was going to spit out some sort of snippy remark, when Kihyun raised a hand to stop him. “Look, I’m not saying I know the situation and I’m not saying I know either of you well. All I’m saying is that you’re never going to stop feeling miserable unless you tell him how you feel.”

Hyungwon walked over to his bed and collapsed down onto it, sitting on the edge, head in his hands. He looked vulnerable and Kihyun felt strange that he was seeing it. “You make it sound like it’s so easy.”

“I never said that it was.” Kihyun shook his head. “But, sometimes we need to do things that aren’t easy.” If Hyungwon was opening up to him, it felt right that he could open up a little, too. “I was really nervous when I asked out Minhyuk.”

Hyungwon snorted, looking up. “ _Really_? Dude, Minhyuk had seriously been into you since you guys first met—how would you ever think he’d say anything but yes?”

Kihyun shrugged, itching at his ear as he felt it become warm. “Well, it’s not like you know for sure until you ask, right?” he muttered.

Hyungwon paused before he nodded, looking back down. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He shifted, leaning back on his arms and dawning a thoughtful expression at Kihyun. “You know, I’ve known Minhyuk since we were ten. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen him like someone as much as he likes you.” He tilted his head to the side. “He’s generally a happy person, obviously, but I can see that you make him really happy.”

Kihyun shifted, his ears feeling like they were suddenly lit on fire. He nudged at the ground with his bare foot, not looking up. “He makes me happy too.” He said, very softly.

“Good, I hope it stays that way.” Kihyun looked up as he watched Hyungwon drag himself up from his sitting position to walk over to him, close enough that Kihyun was forced to look up at him due to their height difference. “This is going to sound super fucking cliché and straight out of a drama, but just so you’re aware,” he leaned forward, hovering over Kihyun and using his height as if it were a weapon, but the redhead stood his ground. “If you hurt him— _at all_ —I will absolutely ruin you. Understand?”

Kihyun narrowed his eyes because of two reasons. First reason was that Hyungwon had a body that would rival a paper doll’s and he was positive he could take him on. The second reason was as if Kihyun would _ever_ want to hurt Minhyuk to begin with— he realized they were still getting to know each other and had a new relationship, but he could never dream about doing something like that. _Granted_ , he thought after a moment, _this is what best friends do, right? He cares about Minhyuk a lot, guess I can’t blame him for being protective_.

“I get it,” said Kihyun evenly. “And you won’t have to, because I have no intention on hurting him.” He looked over Hyungwon, he smiled small. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad he has a friend like you.”

“Of course, I’m great,” snorted Hyungwon, stepping back and grinning down at Kihyun a bit.

It was at that point it dawned on him that he and Hyungwon had pretty similar personalities, not that he would ever admit to that openly. He left the room, feeling a bit lighter and ready to spend the evening with his favorite person on the North American continent.

 

☼

 

It was 7:30 that evening and Kihyun was comfortable. Him and Minhyuk had just eaten a dinner of pizza and were now settled on his old couch watching _Nailed It_ on Netflix. Kihyun was resting his back against the arm of the couch, Minhyuk settled between his legs, back resting against his chest as the blond’s head rested on his shoulder.

He was getting a bit bored with the show, if he were to be honest—he didn’t get why Minhyuk liked it so much. It was just consistently showing people, who had no idea how to bake, consistently making the same mistakes over and over again (how hard was it to figure out you weren’t so supposed to fill a cake pan to the brim with batter? Amateurs.). He had loss focus on the TV some time prior and was more interested in the man resting against him.

Minhyuk was constantly chattering, laughing and making comments on the antics that were occurring in the baking show, and was constantly shifting against his crotch. Initially, his body wasn’t reacting, but now that they were on their third episode of the show, it was starting to get impossible to ignore.

After one particularly large movement that felt almost like a grind against him, he finally released a groan, unable to contain himself anymore.

“Hey,” he murmured, turning his head to talk near the other’s ear, interrupting Minhyuk’s current tangent.

“What?” Minhyuk said back, craning his neck to look up at him, eyebrows raised.

“You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?” he said, making eye contact.

Minhyuk suddenly grinned, biting the tip of his tongue as he shifted against the bulge that he could no doubt feel against him. He watched as Minhyuk looked back to the TV. “No idea what you’re talking about.”

“Really,” he said, eyes narrowing. Well, two could play at that game. “Okay, then.” He shrugged. His arms that had been resting stagnant around Minhyuk’s waist started moving, running over the lean man’s sides before one hand travelled to rub over his chest, brushing against a nipple covered by his thin shirt. Minhyuk groaned.

“Oh,” the blond said, breath catching at the sensation.

“Yeah, _oh_ ,” Kihyun repeated, grinning as he shifted himself down enough so he could reach the pale neck, running his nose along it. He moved his hands downwards, slipping under Minhyuk’s shirt only to move back up towards his chest, catching the nipple with his fingers, rolling the bud and feeling it turn hard as he teased it. He took that moment to lick over the junction between Minhyuk’s neck and shoulder, biting into it as his fingers continued to move against lean, pretty muscles.

Minhyuk moaned loudly, sound bouncing off the walls of the living room as the blond craned his neck, giving Kihyun more access and urging more action. He found himself thankful that Hyungwon was gone at work—there was no way Minhyuk wouldn’t have been clearly heard.

“Sensitive, huh?” he whispered softly into the neck, mouthing open mouth kisses against the skin. He took that moment to pinch the bud of Minhyuk’s nipple again and he felt the body press back against his own.

“Shush,” Minhyuk moaned and the redhead’s eyebrow twitched.

He moved up to sink his teeth roughly into his earlobe, making the other man yelp in surprise. “ _Don’t_ shush me,” he warned and he heard Minhyuk whimper in response and, oh—that went straight to his dick.

“S-sorry,” the taller man murmured. Feeling pleased, Kihyun licked over the abused lobe, the skin having had turned red from his bite and Minhyuk shuddered.

He glanced down at the slim body and clearly saw the erection that was straining against the fabric of his sweatpants and Kihyun could feel his body reacted the same. He places a short kiss against Minhyuk’s neck again before slipping his hands out from under his shirt to press lightly against the other’s back, coaxing him to move. “Sit with your back on the couch,” he told Minhyuk, who quickly nodded, maneuvering his body so it was flush against the back of the couch and Kihyun moved to stand.

He stood in front of the other, Minhyuk looking up at him, blinking unevenly and mouth parted as he began breathing harder in anticipation. Unable to stop himself, he leaned forward, one hand grabbing the back of the couch, the other cupping Minhyuk’s jaw and he bit into his bottom lip, Minhyuk’s mouth opening and allowing him to lick inside. He heard the other moan into the kiss, throwing his arms around Kihyun shoulder’s as he tilted his head to deepen the kiss further.

Minhyuk was a _really_ good kisser. He was aggressive, but needy and skilled to the point that the movement of his tongue felt like a skilled, complicated dance that one can only achieve by years of practice. The idea of Minhyuk kissing anyone else bothered him slightly (even though he knew it shouldn’t as it happened in the past), but _damn_ he could always find himself appreciating how Minhyuk moved his mouth against his own, making him always yearn for more.

He parted from the pink lips with a quiet pop, grabbing Minhyuk’s narrow chin between his pointer finger and thumb, staring at the beautiful face. His lips, now swollen, parted as he stared into Kihyun’s eyes, face flushed pink. _God_ , he was fucking pretty and he had to fight a moan that wanted to creep up just by staring at him.

Kihyun licked his lips before sinking down to his knees, crouched in front of Minhyuk’s body. He reached forward, gripping onto the waistband of the blond’s sweatpants. “Lift up,” he said, and Minhyuk immediately complied, pressing back to lift his narrow hips so Kihyun was able to slip his pants down and off completely, leaving his lower half completely naked as, to Kihyun’s surprise, Minhyuk was _not_ wearing underwear.

“Naughty, naughty.” Kihyun wanted to sound teasing, but his voice came out too quiet to come off as such. He was too interested in staring at Minhyuk’s cock, which was sitting hard and pink against his lower stomach. He reached out, hand trailing against the long length as he looked up to see the taller man’s reaction. Minhyuk was openly panting now, looking down at Kihyun with so much need and affection that the redhead tried to think of a time he had felt this wanted in his life, and his mind came up blank.

“Oh, my God,” Minhyuk groaned, lifting his hips up involuntary into the pressure of Kihyun’s hand. “If you’re going to give me head, I don’t know how long I can last,” he pressed out and as if to support his claim, a drop of precum leaked out from the flushed tip, legs spreading to make room for the body between them.

Kihyun managed a smirk, feeling empowered as he leaned forward, letting his breath hit the sensitive skin on the underside as he watched Minhyuk’s legs tremble. “Is that what you want?” he asked, each word producing hot air as he let his lips almost touch the head. _Almost_.

“Don’t tease,” Minhyuk gasped, voice desperate.

“Hm,” Kihyun hummed, poking out his tongue to lick shortly against his tip, and Minhyuk bucked up. “I won’t know what you want unless you tell me.”

“God, _why_ ,” Minhyuk whined, closing his eyes briefly. It was cute, Minhyuk looking desperate for contact. He opened them again, to look down at Kihyun, who was still smirking. “I’ve fantasized about my dick in your mouth for fucking ages—just— _please_ , Kihyun!”

Well. Who was he to refuse? Taking a deep breath, he gripped the base of Minhyuk’s erection in his hand before enveloping the head into his mouth and sucked.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Minhyuk threw his head back against the couch and Kihyun managed to grab his hips before he bucked up into his mouth.

Minhyuk was big—not terrifyingly so but definitely bigger than Kihyun and _much_ bigger than Kihyun was used to in his blow job repertoire. If he didn’t go slow and watch what he was doing, he could easily gag himself which was something he didn’t want to do.

With that in mind, he experimentally bobbed his head, trying to go a bit further each time he descended back down, pumping what he couldn’t fit into his mouth safely with his hand. He pulled back up, lapping at Minhyuk’s slit and he licked away any precum that seemed to continuously dribble out before sinking back down again.

Minhyuk was practically _writhing_ on the couch, back slowly slipping down and legs spread as far as they could go and trembling as Kihyun traced patterns on the underside of his length as he slid up and down. His large hand reached out as he moaned, threading his fingers into Kihyun’s red hair—not pushing him down but following the movement as his head continued to move.

Looking into Minhyuk’s half lidded eyes, he moved as far down as he was able, two finger widths away from his boyfriend’s groin as he hollowed his cheeks and sucked as hard as he could back all the way up.

Minhyuk moaned loudly, trying to stop it short by biting his lip as his back arched off the couch, creating a beautiful arc with the lithe body before collapsing back down. “Oh, God, do that again,” he panted, head falling to one side. “ _Please_.”

And Kihyun did. Again. And again. _And again_. At this point Minhyuk’s whole body was quaking as he responded to every move of Kihyun’s mouth and tongue. Kihyun was so painfully hard, but couldn’t stop watching as the blond completely succumbed to the pleasure, facial expression gorgeous and vulnerable and needy. It was intoxicating and Kihyun wanted to print it so he could look at it forever.

“I’m really close,” Minhyuk groaned, fingers gripped a bit painfully in Kihyun’s hair but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t take. He wanted Minhyuk to feel wonderful—he deserved it. Kihyun bobbed back to the tip, keeping it in his mouth and he swirled his tongue around it, sucked, and then moved back down again. 

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back as Minhyuk’s mouth fell open, body going taut as his muscles flexed with the sudden burst of his orgasm, moaning beautifully as he came in Kihyun’s mouth as he said his name.

Kihyun swallowed, taste bitter on his tongue—not something he usually did, but…well, he _did_ make a lot of exceptions when it came to Lee Minhyuk. The man in front of him was spent, body completely lax, eyes sealed shut and chest rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath. Seeing him completely out of it made the redhead feel smug, and he couldn’t help but smirk at the other.

A moment passed before Minhyuk slowly opened his eyes, blinking unevenly shortly after as he looked at Kihyun. “Hey,” he said, pouting a little, “don’t smirk at me.”

“Too late,” shrugged Kihyun. He tried keeping the expression, but it was difficult—he felt like his own erection was pulsating in the confines of his borrowed sweats.

Minhyuk, finding his consciousness again, glanced down to Kihyun’s crotch as he remained kneeling on the floor, before looking back up to his eyes. “Stand up,” Minhyuk ordered, sitting himself up to sit at the edge of the couch.

Kihyun wanted to give a snarky comment, but he just couldn’t find the mental fortitude to muster it. Instead, he stood up, legs a little shaky from kneeling on the floor amongst other things as he took a step forward.

Minhyuk immediately yanked down his pants, boxer briefs and all, moving them down to settle mid-thigh before he gripped at his hips, shoving Kihyun forward only to take the entire length of his erection into his mouth at once.

Unable to contain himself, the redhead moaned deep, feeling so sensitive in his boyfriend’s mouth as he deep throated him mercilessly, the head of his cock continually hitting the back of Minhyuk’s throat as he felt his nose and lips touch the skin of his groin over and over again. Minhyuk’s large hands pulled on his hips, bringing him as close as possible and humming around him—it took all of his strength to not let his knees buckle from underneath him.

Feeling overstimulated from the get go and accompanied by the constant onslaught of his cock sliding down what felt like the entire length of Minhyuk’s throat, he didn’t even try to fight away his orgasm that washed over him like a tidal wave not even a minute later, hand gripping Minhyuk’s neck as he released. Minhyuk swallowed him every step of the way, lapping up everything with vigor.

Once the blond let Kihyun out of his mouth, the redhead allowed himself to collapse onto his knees, breathing haggard as he looked at Minhyuk—he was beaming at him, looking every bit proud of himself. He couldn’t help but laugh a little as he leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the other’s swollen mouth.

Minhyuk pressed back, hands moving to wrap around Kihyun’s waist as they kneeled on the unvacuumed carpet. When they parted, Minhyuk smiled beautifully at him, like he couldn’t be happier to be with anyone else and it tugged on Kihyun’s heart strings. He reached out, grabbing the back of the taller man’s head and bringing it forward to settle into the crook of Kihyun’s shoulder and he wrapped his other arm around the lean body.

Kihyun sighed, satiated and completely content. He never wanted to leave Minhyuk. Ever.    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!! Thank you everyone who continues to read, leave such wonderful comments and kudos--I greatly appreciate all the feedback, so thank you for the continued engagement!! I hope you enjoyed the new chapter :) 
> 
> I have some things going on this coming week so I might not being able to update this coming Sunday, but I'm definitely going to try. If I'm not able to, the next chapter would come out the following Sunday which would be on 6/16.
> 
> Thank you all again!!! :D


	8. Indescribable Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kihyun sleeps over at Minhyuk's place the weekend of the fall festival.

The month of October fell upon them and it was now the Friday before their University’s fall festival. Minhyuk had just finished his shift, having had to work until 7 and was now killing time at the gas station, following Hyungwon around the store as the black haired boy tried to complete his tasks.

“No, it was really cool,” urged Minhyuk, watching as Hyungwon, clad in his polyester vest, cleaned up the small table in the corner where some teenagers had left all their snack garbage. He was trying to explain his most recent victory in competitive Overwatch. “You know at point B on Volskaya Industries? The enemy team stormed the point to try and capture it, obviously, and I was like ‘Oh, not on my watch!’. So, when five of them were all on it I fell down from one of the rotating platforms and did Death Blossom and killed them all. A quintuple kill! _And_ I got play of the game too. It was awesome.”

Hyungwon had an expression on his face that showed he was not even remotely interested. “Fascinating.” Well, that sounded rudely sarcastic. “Why are you bugging me again? I thought you would be cooking with Kihyun or something. You have a shit ton to make, don’t you?”

Minhyuk grimaced at the thought as Hyungwon, using his massive hands to his advantage, grabbed all the garbage on the table in one handful and threw it away at the nearby trash can. “Don’t _remind_ me,” he groaned. “I’m even off this weekend and I have to spend most of it cooking for the dumb festival.”

“That’s my point though— _why_ are you here?” Hyungwon iterated, wiping his hands on his vest before making his way back to the counter at the front of the store, closely followed by Minhyuk. “I can’t imagine Kihyun would let you get away with doing nothing. Plus, you’re always joined at his hip if you’re able to be, anyway.”

“You make me feel like you’re not happy to see me.”

“We live together and go to the same college. I see you all the fucking time.”

“Then you should be _delighted_ to see me even more, since I’m God damned wonderful,” he grinned, Hyungwon rolling his eyes at him as he walked behind the counter. “I’m here because I gave Ki the keys to the apartment so he could get the kitchen ready for cooking tomorrow while I was working and he told me _specifically_ that I can’t come back until 8.” He couldn’t help but pout.

“You can’t come back to your _own_ apartment?” Hyungwon bobbed his head back, releasing a bark of a laugh soon after. “Oh my God, you’re so whipped.”

Minhyuk hummed, leaning against the opposite side of the glass counter, elbow resting on top so he could pillow his chin in his palm. “Maybe,” he amended, glancing down at the colorful scratch cards underneath the glass.

“Not ‘maybe’, more like _definitely_ ,” Hyungwon drawled, mimicking Minhyuk’s pose from the other side, eyes level. “I don’t get why he said you couldn’t come back right away—oh,” he paused, blinking slowly as a thought seemed to appear in his head. “No, I get it—he probably didn’t want you to get in the way. That makes sense.”

Minhyuk gasped dramatically, pulling away from the counter. “I never get in the way!”

“You get in the way _all_ the time, Min,” snorted Hyungwon, corner of his lips pulling upwards. “You have the worst attention span and get distracted by pretty much everything. I don’t think Kihyun knows what it would be like spending a whole day cooking with you…” His large lips pulled up into a grin. “I wish I was there to see it—I could eat popcorn and watch the fuckery unfold. It’d be hilarious.”

Minhyuk pulled his lips into a tight line. He didn’t really have a retort when Hyungwon pulled up valid points—he _did_ get distracted easily. “Well, what are you doing tomorrow, anyway?”

“I work at ten and meeting up with Hoseok afterwards.”

“Ooooooh,” the blond cooed. “And what are you two love birds doing?”

“ _Ew_ ,” the other boy grimaced, but a rare flush was painted on his tan cheeks. “Dinner and a movie.”

Minhyuk gasped, clapping his hands excitedly as he hopped in his spot. “It’s an actual date!”

“I mean, we didn’t _specify_ that it was,” Hyungwon muttered and glared at Minhyuk’s disappointed expression that he wasn’t able to fight. “Hey, I’m working on it, okay? This shit takes time.”

_It’s been three years already!_ “Whatever you say, princess,” sighed Minhyuk. “Well, I hope you guys have fun.” He glanced at his phone and saw that the time was 7:45. He squealed in excitement, abandoning Hyungwon momentarily to rush over to the coolers in the back to grab two bottles of Coke before bringing them back just as fast. “Sir, if you could ring these up for me post haste, I would be most ever grateful.”

Hyungwon looked at him in bored bemusement as he slowly brought his scanner up to run over the bar codes on the bottles. “You’re like a puppy ready to go for a walk,” said Hyungwon, shaking his head. “You total is $4.26.”

Minhyuk happily grabbed one of the five dollar bills he had gotten in tip money that evening and handed it over. Hyungwon gave back his change and placed the two bottles into a thin, plastic bag—when Minhyuk accepted the bag, Hyungwon grabbed his receipt, crumpled it up and threw it at Minhyuk’s chest.

“I’m not picking that up,” Minhyuk sing-songed, walking towards the glass doors, bag in hand. “Oh, Kihyun’s sleeping over, by the way. Thought I should tell you.” He said over his shoulder.

He could hear the lanky boy groan. “Oh, God, _great_ ,” he muttered as Minhyuk pressed a door open with his palm. “If you fuck around can you at least be quiet?”

Minhyuk snickered as he didn’t look back, walking through the door. Before it could close, he called back, “Nope!” and started his trek home.

After jogging the majority of the trip, he managed to be at his apartment door at exactly 8:01 and he was whistling _The Circle of Life_ as he entered into his entry way.

Minhyuk had been intending on saying something along the lines of “Honey, I’m home!” when he entered the space (or something else equally as cheesy), however, his voice caught in his throat when he saw the state of him two-bedroom apartment. “Oh, my God,” he whispered, eyes comically wide and dropping the bag he had been holding to the floor.

His now very _clean_ floor.

His carpet, which had been a sickly grey color for as long as he could remember, was staring back at him a pleasant off-white. There was no trash, beer cans or dirty clothes anywhere in sight. The couch had been vacuumed, the coffee table wiped, his entertainment center dusted and the pleasant smell of lemon cleaner was present. He slowly walked further, in a daze as he made his way to a cleaned kitchen where he was greeted with the site of a short redhead, clad in basketball shorts and a green t-shirt standing barefoot at his (now spotless) stove.

Kihyun had cleaned the entire apartment. _Holy shit_.

“Oh,” said Kihyun, turning to face the blond when he heard his footsteps. He had a spatula grasped in his hand. “You’re actually on time—that’s a surprise.” Minhyuk just gaped. Was the redhead an angel? “By the way, I asked you to clean up a bit before I got here, you know. I find it funny that the only room that looked even remotely tidy was your _bedroom_. Why was that?” Kihyun raised an eyebrow at him.

“Priorities?” Minhyuk tried, still in shock. “I can’t believe you cleaned the apartment—I thought you were just going to do the kitchen!”

“Yeah, well,” Kihyun’s ears turned pink as he shrugged his shoulders, trying to seem nonchalant. He turned back to the stove to fiddle with the contents in the pan—it smelt really good. “Once I get started cleaning it’s sort of hard for me to stop,” he muttered.

Minhyuk, finally finding his composure, walked the few steps it took to reach Kihyun and he instantly wrapped his arms around the boy’s waist, chin resting on the narrower shoulders. “Thank you,” he whispered. “This is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.” And he meant it. He couldn’t imagine anyone he knew who would be willing to spend their time cleaning up his apartment, especially on account that it had been in the state it was in due to his and Hyungwon’s mutual laziness. It made him a bit emotional. “How am I supposed to thank you?”

“You just did,” said the redhead. He was clearly fighting a smile from the sound of his voice. “Just try and keep it clean, yeah?”

Minhyuk nodded quickly. “I’ll try, I promise!”

“Good,” Kihyun nodded. “I’m making us dinner.”

Minhyuk finally glanced down, looking over Kihyun’s shoulder to see the pans on the stove and he immediately raised his eyebrows. The larger pan had two medium sized steaks sizzling inside of it. “Where did you get _steaks_?”

“Well,” began Kihyun, poking at one of the pieces of meat in question with the black spatula. “Hyungwon gave me cash to get the groceries for the festival and there was some money left over…” he trailed off as Minhyuk craned his neck to look at his profile. Kihyun’s mouth corner was twitching.

Minhyuk gasped as he grinned. “Kihyun, you rebel.”

“They were on sale!” Kihyun sniffed indignantly. “Don’t tell Hyungwon,” he added.

“Your secret is safe with me.” Minhyuk giggled before pressing his lips against the other boy’s neck. “Thank you for cooking…Man, You’re making us dinner, plus you cleaned my entire place and I haven’t really done anything for you. I’m an awful boyfriend.”

“Not the _entire_ place—I refuse to touch Hyungwon’s room,” the redhead mumbled. “Regardless, you do more than enough for me, Minhyuk. You’re helping me cook tomorrow, remember? In my eyes you’re a wonderful boyfriend.” Minhyuk watched as Kihyun’s face continuously flushed a deeper shade of red as he finished his sentence and he was instantly filled with warmth.

“I like you so much,” Minhyuk blurted out, squeezing Kihyun’s waist even tighter as he buried his head into the short boy’s shoulder, suddenly overwhelmed by the emotion and affection that took over him. He wanted to either hug Kihyun into utter oblivion or put him in his pocket so he was with him forever.

“I like you too, but you’re going to break my ribs!” Kihyun laughed, using his spatula to slap lightly at the hands on his waist, to which Minhyuk yelped in response before he let go. “Now go take a shower. You smell like tempura.”

“Um, so? Tempura is _delicious_ which means I am too,” Minhyuk pouted. He took a step over to stand next to Kihyun, reaching forward to grab the boy’s chin, turning his face towards his so he could cover the other’s lips with his own. He stayed there for a few seconds before slowly pulling away, smiling at Kihyun’s face that now resembled a ripe tomato. “See?” He asked, kissing him again. “Delicious.”

“Oh my God.” Kihyun rolled his eyes, shoving Minhyuk’s shoulder. He appeared to be trying to look composed, but the boy was failing greatly. “Just go take a shower!”

The blond snickered as he finally moved from the kitchen to make his way to the bathroom. “Okaaaaaay!” he sang out.

“And don’t dawdle the food will be ready soon!” He called after him. Minhyuk was sure he wasn’t meant to hear what followed next, but he clearly heard the redhead mutter in Korean: “Most embarrassing person _ever_.”

 

☼

 

Minhyuk was happy to find out that Kihyun was a fantastic cook—much better than he was able to do himself. He had managed to make the steak exactly the way Minhyuk liked it (medium rare) without having to even ask and the blond found himself feeling pleasantly stuffed with the first home cooked meal he had had in ages.

It was a little past 9 once dinner was finished and all he wanted to do was curl up with Kihyun on the couch to cuddle and watch a movie, but his boyfriend had shook his head in disagreement at the suggestion.

“Nope, we need to get to bed,” said Kihyun, firmly. “We need to be up by at least 5am to make sure we have enough time to get all the food ready for Sunday.”

“ _5am_?! Are you serious?” Minhyuk blanched. He couldn’t remember the last time he had woken up that early, but he definitely recalled the last time he had stayed up that late (it had, in fact, been the night of the party they had went to), which was entirely different.

Kihyun slowly turned to him with a stern expression, eyebrows raised. “Have you ever known me to _not_ be serious?” Well, Kihyun had a point.

“Ugh, fine,” Minhyuk groaned, the sound bordering on whiny. “Be thankful you’re cute,” he muttered, walking dejectedly to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

“Sexy,” the redhead corrected him.

“Don’t remind me!" He called back, closing the bathroom door behind him.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the blond was in his pajamas (which comprised of a thin black shirt and sweatpants), snuggled to one side of his twin sized bed with his head already resting against a pillow while he waited for the shorter boy to join him. Eventually, Kihyun made his appearance by entering the room, closing and locking the door behind him and Minhyuk was immediately endeared by his choice in sleepwear.

Kihyun was dressed in a massively oversized white shirt (maybe it was Hyunwoo’s?) that’s length reached down to just above his knees with no pants in sight, bare legs on display for him to see. It was absolutely adorable and Minhyuk instantly wanted to squeeze him like one of his stuffed whales.

“Are you _just_ wearing a shirt?” Minhyuk couldn’t help but tease as Kihyun walked the short length to the side of the bed opposite of the blond.

“Of course not,” snorted Kihyun, lifting up one side of the down comforter so he could crawl under it. As the shorter boy raised his knee to slide into the bed, Minhyuk could see black briefs peak up from under the white shirt. “I have underwear on.”

Minhyuk hummed in response as he watched Kihyun get comfortable on the other side of the small bed. Once the redhead appeared settled, Minhyuk shifted to his side, reaching out to grab the other’s body, pulling him into a tight embrace so Kihyun’s back was pressed to his chest.

Kihyun released a quiet ‘ _ooof!_ ’ as the air was pressed out of his lungs in surprise at the sudden movement. He made a quiet sigh as Minhyuk nuzzled his nose into the other’s nape—Kihyun smelt like his body wash. “Minhyuk,” said Kihyun, his tone sounding like he was chastising a child. “I said we need to go to _bed_.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t say we couldn’t _snuggle_ in said bed,” he mumbled back, talking against the redhead’s neck. “Come on,” he urged, letting his hand creep down to massage soothingly over Kihyun’s thigh, “just a few minutes?”

Kihyun could be heard releasing a loud breath through his nose. “When we cuddle it’s never ‘just a few minutes’,” he said. However, he didn’t push or pull away, but settled himself further against Minhyuk’s chest. He didn’t appear to have any intention of moving.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he mumbled, placing a kiss against the soft skin, which was shortly followed by another, then another, then another…

“You’re like a kid who never listens,” Kihyun scolded and Minhyuk could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

“I listen just fine.” Minhyuk grinned, mouth still against Kihyun’s skin, sucking lightly at the patch behind the boy’s ear right after. He shifted his hips that were pressed flush against the redhead’s backside, not allowing anything to be left to the imagination as there was _definitely_ something besides his hips pressed against the body in his arms.

Kihyun tilted his head instinctively to the side in response to Minhyuk’s kisses, the area now a bit flushed. “You’re impossible, you know that?” Kihyun snorted and he pointedly shoved Minhyuk’s hands away.

The blond had been a second away from whining like a toddler at the loss of contact, but his voice caught in his throat by Kihyun suddenly flipping around so they were now facing each other. Kihyun smirked right in his face, pressing their chests together, legs intertwining. “Just a few minutes, then,” he said, so close he was practically talking against Minhyuk’s parted lips. “Better make them count, yeah?” The shorter boy closed the distance and licked into his mouth.

Minhyuk instantly moaned in a combination of want and need, letting his hands settle onto Kihyun’s waist to massage at the skin there. He pulled Kihyun closer, pulling his hips into his own as he rocked slowly into the other’s body. He sucked the redhead’s tongue into his mouth, groaning at the feeling and needing more.

“I want you so bad,” Minhyuk moaned against Kihyun’s mouth, unable to keep the thought inside.

Kihyun hummed at him, moving his face down and Minhyuk could feel the sharp nose trace against his jawline before a set of teeth sunk into a sensitive part on his neck. It made him quiver. “Do you?” Kihyun asked in between bites. “And what do you want me to do to you?”

Minhyuk felt himself flush at the question—it led too much to the imagination and Minhyuk’s imagination was _vivid_. He bit at his lip as the skin of his neck was sucked at roughly, Kihyun now having come accustomed to the kind of touches he loved. The mixture of mild pain and pleasure was making it impossible for him to try and formulate an answer.

“I—,” he started, his response cut off by another groan he couldn’t help pass his lips as Kihyun bit down on his neck again. _Fuck_ , that felt good. He swallowed thickly, licking over his lips that had now become dry.

“You?” Kihyun teased, dragging his lips up to pull at Minhyuk’s earlobe.

“I,” he tried again, visions running behind his eyes that he hadn’t realized he closed. “W-would you,” he stuttered out as Kihyun begun assaulting his ear with his teeth and tongue and the sensations sent shivers down his enter body. “Fuck, I can’t talk.”

“That’s new.” Kihyun snorted, using his teeth to give one final tug to his lobe before releasing it. He raised his head to let the intense brown eyes meet with Minhyuk’s. “Wanna try again?”

He licked over his lips again, looking Kihyun in the eyes. He felt embarrassed asking what he wanted, but he took a big breath and blurted it out anyway. “Would you finger me?”

Kihyun’s eyes went instantly wide. “Uh,” he stumbled over his words, the cool and domineering composure slipping away in an instant, “you—you want me to do that to you?”

Minhyuk nodded his head quickly in answer, flushing even more. “ _God_ yes,” he panted, the thought alone making his cock twitch in his pants. He looked into Kihyun’s eyes, which were still incredibly wide, and he added in a hurry: “I mean, unless you don’t want to. I—.”

“No, I want to!” Kihyun exclaimed and instantly looked embarrassed at how eager his voice sounded. He glanced off to the side, biting at his top lip before letting it go. “Do you have—shit, what’s it called?” The shorter boy shook his head in evident frustration. “Damn it, I have no idea what it’s called in English.”

Minhyuk’s eyes furrowed at what Kihyun wanted to know if he had when it dawned on him. “Oh!” he said loudly. He slipped his hands from Kihyun’s waist to roll over to reach his bedside table. He fumbled for a minute inside the drawer before he triumphantly grabbed a small plastic bottle. “Here!” he said, rolling over again and shoving a half-full bottle of lube into Kihyun’s smaller hand. “That’s what you meant, right?”

Kihyun nodded, taking the bottle somewhat awkwardly. He looked down at it with a small frown. “…Why is the bottle half empty?” he asked him slowly.

“Uh,” said Minhyuk, feeling embarrassed all over again. “Well,” he began, chewing on his lip while shifting his gaze from the small bottle to Kihyun’s face, “I like to do this to myself sometimes and you sort of need lube to do it, so…” he trailed off, his face feeling like it was set on fire.

“Lube! That’s what it’s called,” nodded Kihyun, snapping his fingers around the bottle in his hand. “Wait,” he paused. “What do you mean by ‘do this’?”

“Finger myself?” Minhyuk replied, in a quiet voice.

“Oh.” Kihyun visibly swallowed, eyes glossing over at his statement. Minhyuk glanced down and noticed the bulge in between Kihyun’s legs, pressing against his briefs and the fabric of the white shirt. “That’s…a nice image,” said Kihyun, ears incredibly red. “So, you still want me too…” He made a motion with his hand that looked nothing like what he was trying to insinuate.

Minhyuk nodded again, grinning at Kihyun to break the small wave of nervous tension. “Absolutely,” he breathed, moving so his back rested against the mattress. Reaching down to shimmy out of his sweatpants—he wasn’t wearing underwear—his erection ended up hitting against his stomach with a soft slap before he flung the pants off to the side.

“Could you take off your shirt too?” Kihyun asked quietly. He was watching Minhyuk intently, eyes roaming over the increasing amount of skin that was exposed.

Minhyuk grinned again. “Sure thing, babe.”

 

☼

 

Kihyun was in a bit of a daze as he watched Minhyuk undress fully in front of him. He had seen the other man shirtless and pants-less on separate occasions, but he had never seen him fully naked before. The site he saw before him once Minhyuk removed his shirt, his hair fluffing up as it was pulled over his head, was breathtaking.

Minhyuk’s skin was perfect—pale and blemish free. His body was thin, but every inch of him was covered in beautiful, lean muscles—not overly defined but obviously there. He looked like a male model had fallen out of a magazine and lied down on the twin sized bed he was also occupying. The blond was perfect. Simple as that.

He must have been gawking at the taller man for a while because his thoughts were interrupted by a laugh, that suspiciously sounded like a giggle. Minhyuk was looking at him, a pink blush splashed across his cheeks as he stared at him, large hands roaming to massage over the skin of his stomach. “Look okay?” he asked him, though the question was clearly teasing.

“More than okay.” Kihyun wasn’t going to even attempt to tease back—his mind was too overwhelmed by the beautiful man in front of him. He glanced down to the bottle in his hand, feeling nervous. He bit at his top lip as he glanced at Minhyuk through his red bangs. “You…might need to guide me a little bit,” he stated, feeling embarrassed that he had to admit it, but he wanted to be honest. “I haven’t done this a lot and I don’t want to do something wrong.”

Minhyuk smiled sweetly at him, sitting up and leaning forward to kiss the tip of Kihyun’s nose. The redhead felt the other’s erection brush against his thigh with the movement. “Don’t worry—I’m an expert on my own body. I can teach you the ways, young grasshopper.”

Kihyun snorted, feeling a bit of his confidence coming back. “You’re only nineteen days older than me, you know,” he said, raising a hand to press against Minhyuk’s bare chest, pushing the other back down.

“But I learned _so_ much in that extra time,” Minhyuk teased, letting himself he pushed and once his back hit the sheets on the bed, he pulled his knees up, feet now resting flat against the mattress.

Kihyun hummed in reply. He took off his shirt, leaving him in only his black boxer briefs as he openly saw Minhyuk’s eyes gazing over his body with want. “Yeah, we’ll see about that.” He moved himself over, placing himself between Minhyuk’s bent knees and instantly got distracted by the view, Minhyuk’s body on full display—open and waiting. He managed to hold back the groan that started building in his chest as he popped open the cap on the bottle of lube.

As he hesitantly coated his pointer and middle fingers in the liquid, he couldn’t help but notice Minhyuk watching him intently. The blond’s mouth was left parted after a pink tongue darted out to lick over his lips. The lithe body squirmed against the sheets and Minhyuk’s erection was weeping.

“Hurry,” Minhyuk whined, shifting again in anticipation. “I want to feel your fingers.”

Kihyun fought the urge to palm himself through his underwear, his own cock incredibly hard at what he was seeing and what was about to transpire. Once his fingers were thoroughly covered, he tossed the bottle of lube to the side and moved forward a little to make sure he was in a comfortable position. “Tell me if I do anything that hurts, okay?” Minhyuk nodded, hands grabbing behind his knees to pull them close to his chest.  

Kihyun bit his lip, slowly lowering his hand, letting it move between Minhyuk’s two firm cheeks. He swallowed, rubbing his finger up and down his crack, lightly brushing against Minhyuk’s entrance as he moved back and forth, making the other man whimper. Eventually he stopped, letting his middle finger circle around the rim slowly, feeling a bit dazed that he was actually going to do what he was about to do, before he pushed forward, letting the digit breach the ring of muscle.

Minhyuk let out a shaky breath, eyes closed as Kihyun slid in, going slowly in an attempt to make sure nothing was painful. Minhyuk felt so incredibly tight around his finger, he couldn’t help but imagine how could it would feel around… _other_ things.

Once his finger was all the way in to the knuckle, he slowly pulled it back out to push it back in. “Okay?” he asked, his body beginning to feel a bit hot.

Minhyuk nodded, letting out another breath, opening his eyes to look at Kihyun. “Okay,” Minhyuk repeated, moving his large hand to point up. “Can you—can you angle a bit more upwards?”

The redhead nodded back, his brow furrowed in concentration. He shifted his finger, curling it and tilting it upwards to attempt a new angle. He hadn’t been sure if the angle had been right until he felt the bundle of nerves he was looking for under his finger tip—when he brushed it, Minhyuk squeaked.

_Found you_ , he thought, smirking to himself. He immediately memorized its position, pulling his finger back out all the way to shove it back in and hitting his prostate purposely with the pad of his finger. Minhyuk moaned instantly, arching his back, dick twitching visibly at the sensation. Feeling much more confident, he continued to pump his finger inside of the tight body without stopping, hitting dead on nearly every time as Minhyuk became a moaning mess underneath him. It was fucking intoxicating.

“Oh my _God,_ it feels fucking amazing,” Minhyuk groaned, head lulling to the side as his body instinctively pushed against the digit inside of him. “Feels—feels so much better than when I do it,” he continued, voice shaky as he looked up and blinked unevenly at Kihyun. The flush from his face had spread to his chest. “Gimme more.”

The redhead licked his lips with a nod, instantly pulling out his middle finger to allow his coated index finger to join it, sliding in with little resistance. It took a couple of pumps to find the correct angle again, but once he hit it just right with both fingers, Minhyuk threw his head back and cried out for more.

Kihyun started mercilessly fucking his fingers into Minhyuk’s body, the speed and accuracy more intense then before. He stared down at Minhyuk in wonder as the pleasure visibly completely overtook him. His mouth stayed open, a mixture of gasps and moans fell from it like a mantra and no longer having the strength to hold his knees to his chest, the legs fell, spread as wide as possible giving Kihyun easy access as he moved his fingers inside of him. His erection was leaking nonstop, a trail of precum dripping from the head and continued down the length until it dripped to his thighs, making a mess but Kihyun couldn’t care less. _He_ was the one that was making Minhyuk feel and look this way and that very thought made him feel incredible.

He dove forward, capturing Minhyuk’s lips in a searing kiss, making sure he didn’t pause the movement of his fingers. The taller man moaned openly into his mouth, throwing his arms to wrap around Kihyun’s neck as he kissed back hungrily, teeth clashing as Minhyuk tried meeting every thrust of Kihyun’s fingers with his own hips.

The kissing must have thrown the blond over the edge as not a minute later, he parted from Kihyun to cry out his name, head thrown back and back arched as he came untouched, painting his stomach and all the way up to his naked chest in white streaks.

Kihyun pumped his fingers through his orgasm, only stopping once Minhyuk whimpered at him—no doubt from over sensitivity. Finally, he gently removed his fingers, staring down at his boyfriend whose body was lax against the bed, chest rising and falling in shaky breaths as his eyes remained shut. He looked utterly spent.

The redhead, ignoring his own nearly painful erection, grabbed his shirt from the floor to throw it over his slightly sweaty torso, making a quick jog to the bathroom (he was _very_ thankful that Hyungwon did not appear to be home yet) to wash his hands and grab a wash cloth so he could soak it in warm water. After he wrung it out once, he moved quickly back to Minhyuk’s bedroom, locking the door again behind him.

The other man didn’t seem to realize that Kihyun had left the room as the blond was laying in the same position as before, legs spread wide, head thrown against the pillow as he seemed to be absorbed in his post-orgasmic high. Kihyun smiled a little to himself as he made his way back over to the bed to crawl in between the blond’s legs once more.

“I’m going to clean you up, okay?” he said softly, taking the washcloth and gently wiping over Minhyuk’s chest. Minhyuk didn’t reply, but he released a content sigh at the warm feeling of the cloth against his skin as Kihyun cleaned him up, moving from his chest to stomach. When Kihyun eventually swiped over the other’s spent cock, he heard Minhyuk whimper again at the touch which made him look up to see the other man staring at him.

“Thank you,” Minhyuk mumbled, blinking tiredly at him, soft blond hair a mess and sticking up in every direction from when he thrashed against his pillow. He looked like an adorable, sleepy mess. _His_ mess.

“No problem.” He smiled, making one more swipe over the lean body to make sure all signs of the man’s release were cleaned up. He took the rag and managed to toss it into the laundry basket on the other side of the room. His aim was evidently on point today (in more ways than one).

“But you didn’t get off,” said Minhyuk once he turned back to him. The blond was looking guilty, but it was also clear that he was struggling to keep his eyes open, his uneven blink even more defined in his spent state.

“It’s fine,” said Kihyun with a shrug, flopping to one side of the bed and pulling Minhyuk to him, their chests pressed together and the blond’s head nestled into his shoulder. He managed to maneuver the comforter with his foot so he could get a grip on it, promptly covering them both. Minhyuk was still completely naked but he appeared too tired to do anything about it and as such Kihyun wanted to make sure his boyfriend was warm. “Totally worth it,” he added quietly as Minhyuk nuzzled his neck, long arm coming up to throw over Kihyun’s side.

“M’ gonna make it up,” Minhyuk slurred, pulling his body as close as possible to the other’s. “Okay?”

Kihyun chuckled. “Okay,” he repeated, placing a kiss on Minhyuk’s cheek. “Now go to sleep, babe.”

“’Kay.”

It took a little while for Kihyun to fall asleep, partially because he realized he left the light on in the bedroom (and Minhyuk had passed out instantly against him, making it impossible for him to get up and turn it off), but also because he liked listening to his boyfriend’s rhythmic breaths and feeling his heartbeat against his chest, creating a pleasant melody that Kihyun found he loved to hear. His body eventually drifted off, serenaded to sleep by Minhyuk’s natural lullaby that was made just for Kihyun and only his to hear.       

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! All feedback is always greatly appreciated and thank you so much for reading!!
> 
> (Side note: Ever proof read something and realize you somehow wrote 'kill' instead of 'kiss"?? Just me? Okay, cool.)


	9. Say We're Only Dreaming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minhyuk's wakes Kihyun up in the best way possible and Kihyun meets someone he wasn't expecting at the fall festival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: there's smut in here (shocking, I know)

Minhyuk slowly opened his eyes, feeling a bit discombobulated. He couldn’t tell what time it was as he realized they had fallen asleep with the light on in his bedroom, but when he squinted at the large window it appeared to be still dark outside. 

He shifted a bit under the blanket and it was at that point that he realized he was completely naked. Feeling confused for a moment (he _never_ slept naked), he glanced over to his side and instantly remembered what had transpired hours before when his eyes fell on the sleeping form of Kihyun.

_ Ah, that’s right _ , he thought with a nod. He had been given the most intense orgasm of his life and had been so out of it that he wasn’t able to put his pajamas back on or be able to reciprocate the favor. He flushed at the memory, recalling how he was writhing on the bed like a complete mess and felt like a firework had gone off within his body when he finally released. It had been a ridiculously intense encounter and he knew the reason for him feeling that way was because of one simple thing: Yoo Kihyun.

He smiled over at the other boy who was currently lying on his back, the blanket having pooled around his waist, his chest rising and falling in the rhythmic breaths of sleep. His face was completely relaxed, lips parted as he snored quietly. In every other case, he thought snoring was annoying, but with Kihyun it was endearing.

Moving carefully, the blond shifted to his side to reach over to his bedside table where his and Kihyun’s phones were sitting charging. He grabbed the other’s phone as it was closer and tapped the button on the side to check the time—it was quarter to five. 

He grinned as a brilliant idea popped into his head. He went to turn off the alarm the shorter boy had set and sat the phone back silently onto the table. Kihyun wouldn’t be needing the alarm to wake up any longer— _Minhyuk_ was going to be his alarm. _A sexy alarm_.

Giggling silently in excitement, Minhyuk rested on his side and slowly pulled off the comforter, letting it fall off the side of the bed so his boyfriend’s body was completely uncovered. Minhyuk bent his elbow and propped his head on his palm as he looked over Kihyun’s body—the redhead was still clothed in his sleepwear. He was going to have to change that.

Delicately, he moved his free hand to slowly lift Kihyun’s oversized t-shirt, raising it until it was settled up near his arm pits. The shorter boy must have been in a rather deep sleep as he didn’t budge even when the cool air hit his exposed skin, he simply crinkled his nose cutely before releasing another quiet snore.

Licking over his lips, Minhyuk leaned over to flick his tongue against Kihyun’s light brown nipple. He glanced upwards to the redhead’s face—his expression hadn’t changed and his snoring continued.

Brow furrowing in mild concentration, the blond quietly moved, trying to shift the bed as little as possible so he was able to sit up, throwing one of his legs over Kihyun’s hips to straddle him, hands placed on either side of his shoulders as he hovered over the sleeping form. Minhyuk leaned down again, covering his mouth over the other boy’s nipple and giving it a gentle suck. Kihyun’s snoring stopped. 

Suppressing another giggle, Minhyuk continue sucking over the spot, feeling the nub harden under his tongue, soon nibbling it with his teeth. Another glance up showed that Kihyun furrowed his brow in his sleep and released a loud breath, but still had not woken up yet. 

Minhyuk kissed over the redhead’s chest, down his soft stomach to dip his tongue into his navel. He shifted lower so he was right above the waistband of his boyfriend’s underwear, placing an open mouthed kiss there before dragging his lips downwards where he felt Kihyun’s semi-hard member underneath the tight fabric.

He traced the outline of the length with his tongue, sliding upwards to stop at the covered head to suck on it messily. As his spit dampened the fabric underneath his mouth, he suckled over the junction right under the tip when he heard a moan from above.

He felt Kihyun shift, seeming to become more aware of what was going on, so he worked quickly. Palming over the bulge briefly with his hand, he dipped his finger into the elastic to finally move the briefs down Kihyun’s narrow hips, just far enough for his now fully hard erection to be exposed.

Minhyuk finally glanced up, to see the other boy’s half lidded eyes looking down at him in mild confusion, lips parted as a tongue darted out to lick over them. Seeming to find his wits, Kihyun swallowed thickly and exhaled a shaky breath.

“What--.”

Minhyuk didn’t let him finish as he grinned cheekily at him before taking the entire length into his mouth, letting the head hit the back of his throat and his nose nuzzle at the skin of his groin.

Kihyun released a loud moan, hand instantly shoving itself into the locks of the blond’s hair. Minhyuk looked up, making eye contact with the other as he watched the brown eyes look at him, clearly surprised but needy. He hollowed his cheeks as he moved easily back up, stopping at the head to dip his tongue into the slit and suckling it right after, making Kihyun’s thighs quiver at the stimulation.

“Mornin’, babe,” Minhyuk spoke around Kihyun’s dick, grinning up at him as the redhead began to visibly pant. He placed a kiss against the tip. “Now listen carefully—I want you to grip my hair and thrust into my mouth as much as you want, ‘kay? I promise I like it and can take it. Sound like a plan?”

Kihyun blinked at him, face showing a prominent blush as he stared down at Minhyuk. Eventually, he swallowed again, before giving a short nod, allowing his other hand to join the one already in his hair.

“Good,” said Minhyuk softly, grinning at Kihyun once more. He kissed the slit, letting his tongue swirl around the head before he sunk back down, encasing Kihyun into the warm heat of his mouth.

Kihyun groaned instantly, hands gripping into his hair a bit tighter as he raised his hips, almost hesitantly at first as if to test the waters to make sure that Minhyuk had meant what he had suggested. It was a sweet gesture, but sometimes Minhyuk just didn’t want the other to be gentle with him. Trying to urge him forward, the blond let out a groan at the feeling of the hands in his hair and the weight of the length in his mouth, the vibrations hitting Kihyun instantly.

Kihyun gasped, grip now becoming rough as he let his hips raise off the mattress to thrust into Minhyuk’s mouth, letting them move continuously in and out between his lips as he took all of him, sucking along when he was able and humming against him. 

“Oh my god,” groaned Kihyun, his head thrown back against the soft pillow. “You’re amazing, it feels so fucking good.”

Minhyuk basked in the compliment as he let his mouth be fucked over and over again, the head hitting and going down the back of his throat every thrust. He knew his voice was going to be utterly shot by the end of it, but he couldn’t be bothered with the thought. All he had in his mind was to try and make the other boy feel even a fraction as good as he had made him feel last night.

The movement of the other’s hips became more and more erratic, stuttering along as he tried to keep up momentum. He thrusted up one more time, dick twitching in Minhyuk’s mouth as he released himself with a breathy moan right down the blond’s throat before collapsing back down to the bed.

Minhyuk let his cock go fully soft before he slowly slid back up, the redhead’s smaller hands finally slipping from his hair to settle against the mattress. He swallowed what remained, licking his mouth corner as he sat back on his heals, beaming down at Kihyun when the redhead reopened his eyes. Unable to contain himself, he slid forward and laid on top of the other, grabbing the flushed face with both hands and kissed his lips. “Good morning,” he said again, kissing Kihyun again right after. His voice sounded ridiculously raspy, but that actually made him feel a sense of pride. _Job well done_ , he thought to himself. 

“Mornin’,” Kihyun mumbled—he still hadn’t completely caught his breath yet. Minhyuk felt the other’s hands move to start tracing patterns onto his back. “You are…super naked right now.”

Minhyuk laughed. A sleepy, fucked out Kihyun was very pliant and adorable, he found. “And your dick is still out—what a pair we are,” he grinned, resting his chin on Kihyun’s chest, blinking up at him with affection.

“That was,” the redhead started, glancing around the room before looking back into his eyes, “reciprocation for last night, I take it?”

Minhyuk tilted his head. “Yep. _But_ I also thought waking up this way would be better than an alarm. What do you think?”

Kihyun snorted. “I can honestly say I would never mind waking up if that was my alarm every day.” His ears were tinged pink as he smirked down at the blond. “But, then I would never want to get out of bed either, and that wouldn’t be very productive, would it?”

“Maybe not, but it would be a hell of a lot more fun.” 

Kihyun laughed as Minhyuk placed a kiss on his pec. Looking to the side, the shorter boy’s hand left his back as he reached to the bedside table to look at the screen. “Well, you were an effective alarm—it’s 5:01. Come on, let’s get moving.”

“What?” Minhyuk’s eyes widened, propping himself up with his arms as he hovered over Kihyun’s body. “Don’t you want to at least bask in your surprise, early morning orgasm?”

“Can’t, no time,” shrugged, Kihyun. He gently pushed at Minhyuk’s chest so he would move, tossing his legs over the side of the bed after he slid his briefs back up. He was definitely still a bit wobbly but his coordination was admirable. Minhyuk would have just fallen back to sleep, which was what he was partially hoping what would happen.

_ Curses, foiled again _ , Minhyuk thought to himself with a sigh. He rolled to the other side of the bed where he finally stood up, stretching his arms far above his head and cracking his neck. He glanced over his shoulder as he saw Kihyun rummage through the backpack he had brought over.

“I’m gonna go pee,” said Minhyuk, walking over to the bedroom door to unlock it.

“Minhyuk, you’re still naked,” Kihyun voice said behind him, no doubt looking at his naked ass in a scolding way.

“Right you are,” replied Minhyuk, releasing a loud yawn as he opened the door. “Aaaaand watch me go.”

“Who raised you?! At least wear pants, Jesus!”

☼

Kihyun had always been organized—even when he was child. He remembered doing things such as sorting the silverware drawer to make sure every piece was in its rightful place, making sure everything from his closet to his underwear drawer were color coded and each toy he owned were put away in its designated spot once he was done with them. Order was something that came second nature to him then, and that feeling continued on into his adulthood.

When he had set on waking up at 5am that Saturday morning to cook for the festival, he realized that the amount of time he had given may have been overkill. But, the reason for that was he preferred the idea of having more time and not needing it than needing more time and not having it, regardless if Minhyuk had complained about it every step of the way.

He had the agenda all planned on his phone. The dishes they were making were the following: kimbap, soft tofu stew and kimchi fried rice (with deserts being hotteok and honey cookies). The first part of the day was to be spent chopping up all ingredients needed for the lunch dishes and sorting them into plastic bags for easy access once they started the actual cooking. They would then make the kimbap first (storing what was made in air tight containers in the fridge), the Korean pancakes next (storing those in the freezer), followed by the honey cookies (those didn’t need to be refrigerated, so he intended on keeping them in a container on the counter) and lastly they would cook the stew and fried rice, as he wanted those to be as fresh as possible for the following day.

It was all a very clear, concise plan on how to get from A to Z, because Kihyun was organized. 

Minhuk, however, was not.

For starters, he spent nearly as much time eating the ingredients he chopped as he spent _actually_ chopping them. He only stopped once he got sick of being told by Kihyun to wash his hands after every time he was caught putting them by his mouth to plop in another piece of carrot (“People are going to be _eating_ this, Min!”, “What, you saying I have germs?”, “Yes, that is _exactly_ what I’m saying.”).

The blond also got distracted. _A lot_. One minute he would be cutting up the green onion in relatively neat sections, a moment later he would be playing on his phone because he didn’t like the song they were listening to and he just _had_ to find a perfect replacement. Then he would go back to what he was doing, such as washing up the dishes they had dirtied in their preparation (Kihyun was an avid believer of cleaning as you go), only to stop in the middle of it because he wanted to dance.

Kihyun would be lying if he said it wasn’t a bit frustrating. His boyfriend was the human version of a living, breathing tornado which went against the root of Kihyun’s being which was strung on order. But that aside, he could honestly say that he had spent the most of the time laughing. Maybe a little bit a chaos was good for him—maybe that was why _Minhyuk_ was good for him. 

They were in the midst of putting together the kimbap—both standing side by side at the kitchen counter, working on their own respective rolls—when Hyungwon entered the kitchen, looking as tired and groggy as usual.

“Morning,” the living beanstalk greeted, opening his gigantic mouth wide in a loud yawn.

“Good morning,” Kihyun greeted back, eyebrows slightly furrowed. He knew that Hyungwon worked at 10am—who gets up only twenty minutes before they worked? He refrained from shaking his head in disapproval.

Hyungwon yawned again, striding over to the fridge to open it and peer inside. “Glad to see you haven’t killed Minhyuk yet,” he said over his shoulder.

“Why would anyone kill me?” asked Minhyuk, turning from his place at the counter to shoot a pout at Hyungwon. 

The black-haired man was smirking when he closed the fridge door, a bottle of Mountain Dew in hand. “Because dealing with you early in the morning is about as fun as a screaming toddler,” he drawled, uncapping the bottle. He quirked an eyebrow. “Why does your voice sound like you gargled a bag of dicks?”

Kihyun felt his shoulders tense up. He, _obviously_ , knew exactly why Minhyuk’s voice sounded much huskier than it normally did and the reason turned his ears red. He turned to look down at kimbap he had been constructing, silently praying that Minhyuk’s big (albeit _talented_ ) mouth would play coy and not go into too much detail as to why his voice was in the state that it was.

“Dunno,” said Minhyuk with a shrug. Kihyun watched out of the corner of his eye as Minhyuk turned around as well, using his large hands to start rolling the ingredients up within the rice and seaweed sheet. “Why does yours sound like it wishes it could eat an ocean of dicks?”

“A whole ocean, huh?” Hyungwon deadpanned.

“You started this unit of measurement, not me,” Miinhyuk quipped. “Are you still going on your date with Hoseok tonight?”

Kihyun breathed a silent breath of relief at the topic change, feeling safe to enter the conversation again. He glanced at Hyungwon. “A date, huh?”

“I never said it was a date,” said Hyungwon, his cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink. “It’s just dinner and a movie,” he mumbled, glancing off to the side and taking a sip from his bottle.

The blond leaned in close to Kihyun’s ear to stage whisper: “In other words, a date.”

The redhead turned his head to glance again at Hyungwon, who was intensely glowering at Minhyuk. Ignoring him, he looked towards Kihyun. “So, is there going to be enough food for the booth tomorrow?”

“Definitely,” said Kihyun, sniffing indignantly. “Funny though—since you’re the club president and all and yet you’re not even helping us make anything.”

“Trust me, it’s for the better,” said Minhyuk gravely, pressing his lips in a thin line. “The last time Hyungwon cooked us dinner we both got food poisoning. We don’t want to _kill_ anyone tomorrow.”

“Oh, shut up, it wasn’t that bad—that could have been a stomach bug,” said Hyungwon, somewhat defensively. He walked over to peer easily over Kihyun’s shoulder, watching him meticulously roll the kimbap, before he added, “I may not be helping with the cooking, but I’ll be helping out at the booth tomorrow with setting it up and tending it.”

“We’ll sell more with your face at the booth, I guess.” Kihyun shrugged his shoulders.

Hyungwon’s full lips lifted into a smirk. “I _am_ the hottest president of all the clubs after all.”

The redhead snorted. “Says who?”

Hyungwon and Minhyuk spoke at the same time: “Everyone.” Hyungwon’s tone was smug while Minhyuk’s was clearly exasperated. Kihyun could only roll his eyes.

“Well, I’m heading off,” said Hyungwon finally. He walked over to the Tupperware container Kihyun had been neatly filling up with evenly cut kimbap to reach inside and grab out a piece. Kihyun tongued the inside of his cheek as he watched the black-haired man shove the piece into his mouth. “Have fun,” he spoke around the roll, giving them both a thumbs up before exiting the kitchen.

The redhead sniffed loudly through his nose, eyes moving from the now empty spot where Hyungwon had been standing, down to the container where he had shoved his hands into. His _unwashed_ hands. He crinkled his nose.

“You’re thinking of throwing those away because Hyungwon touched it, aren’t you?” When Minhyuk spoke, Kihyun turned to the blond to see a knowing smile on his face.

Kihyun flushed, completely caught. Okay, he could be a little of a germaphobe— _especially_ when it comes to food. “Well…” he said, trailing off.

Minhyuk let out a laugh which was shortly followed by a grin. “I know you hate being called cute, but you are seriously the cutest thing.” He took a step over to place a kiss on Kihyun’s forehead. “I saw him only touch the piece he took, so the rest are fine, okay? No need to throw away your hard work.”

He released a sigh, enjoying the feeling of the soft lips on his skin before he looked up into the brown eyes that were looking back at him with so much affection. His resolve melted into those eyes. 

“Fine,” he said eventually.

“Good boy,” grinned Minhyuk, tapping his nose with the pad of his finger. Naturally, Kihyun flushed fuchsia and smacked the hand away.

They ended up cooking nearly the whole day away and at its end, Minhyuk’s refrigerator was full to the brim with freshly cooked food, ready to be served the following day. The two had dinner together, eating a plate each of what they had made before Kihyun readied himself to head back to the dorms for the night. 

Minhyuk was whining at him as Kihyun laced up his black Chuck Taylor’s in front of the door.

“Just spend the night again!” the blond pouted, crossing his arms and blowing a tuft of hair from his eyes. “You’re going to be helping us right away in the morning with getting the food there, anyway. Wouldn’t it save time?”

“I have an assignment to finish, Min,” said Kihyun, voice firm. He made sure his laces were tied evenly on both feet before standing back up. The other man was still pouting. “And you’ll see me right away in the morning when you and Hyungwon drive over, anyway.”

Minhyuk sighed, flopping his head from one side to the other. “ _Fine_ , I guess I’ll allow it,” he managed finally.

Kihyun rolled his eyes, but couldn’t hold back a smile. He would be lying if he said that the fact Minhyuk didn’t want him to leave didn’t make him embarrassingly happy. “Wow, thank you for _allowing_ me to be a good student. So kind of you.”

“I know, right? You’re welcome, by the way.”

The redhead snorted openly, taking a step forward to lessen the space between them. He tossed his arms over Minhyuk’s shoulder and raised a bit onto his tiptoes so they could be closer to eye level. “Thanks for helping me today,” he said softly, looking into the other men’s eyes. “I know this isn’t really a thing you’d normally do. It means a lot that you were willing to help me at all.”

A beautiful smile spread across the blond’s face as he brought his large hands to rest upon Kihyun’s hips, pulling him close. He leaned in, speaking a breath away from Kihyun’s lips. “You’re welcome,” he said, this time genuine. “I’d do pretty much anything you want me to—you just have to ask.”

Kihyun’s eyes went soft at the words as he smiled back. “Same,” he said before he kissed Minhyuk soundly on the lips. 

☼

The festival was held in the large park connected to the University. There were at least 20 different booths set up throughout, offering everything from food to games. The Korean Club’s booth was situated next to a few other food related booths, near the center of the park. Thankfully it was a very nice fall day without much wind which was surprising as it was the nearly the middle of October.

“The Japan Club’s booth has rice balls.”

Kihyun glanced over at Minhyuk. The blond was dressed in an oversized black sweater and his trademark ripped jeans. He was also looking very longingly at the neighboring booth’s food while holding a giant bag of frozen hotteok and licking his lips.

“Quit drooling over the competition.” Kihyun rolled his eyes as he began setting up the griddle to heat up the hotteok and kimchi fried rice, fiddling with the cord so it was no longer tangled. “If you want me to make riceballs for you, _I’ll_ do it. You don’t need theirs.”

Minhyuk snorted. “Competition?” he asked, grinning down at him. “ _Someone’s_ taking this pretty seriously.”

“Well, out of the three of us someone’s got to be the serious one.” Kihyun shrugged indignantly.

“I’m serious too,” said Hyungwon, walking up to the booth holding the massive pot of stew Kihyun had made in his mantis like limbs. He looked like he was struggling with carrying it but managed to plop it down in the middle of the table without spilling any—it was mildly impressive. He let out a loud huff, winded. “Holy shit, that was heavy.”

“A stuffed animal would be heavy for you to carry,” muttered Kihyun.

“I heard that, shorty.”

“Quit flirting with each other,” chirped Minhyuk, making both Kihyun and Hyungwon look in his direction. They both blanched.

“ _Gross_ , I am not flirting him of all people,” deadpanned the black-haired man as Minhyuk came over to drape an arm around Kihyun’s shoulders.

“If he was trying to flirt he wouldn’t call me short all the damn time,” snorted Kihyun, leaning into the blond’s embrace instinctively and momentarily ignoring the fact that they were very much in a public place. Minhyuk placed a kiss on his cheek and his chest swelled.

Hyungwon rolled his eyes, shuffling around to the back of the table the lanky man started opening up packages of disposable plates and setting them at the corner of the booth. “PDA this early in the day, huh?” 

“10:30 is not early.” Kihyun furrowed his eyebrows. “What does ‘PDA’ mean?”

“Public displays of affection,” drawled Hyungwon, glancing at Kihyun through his bangs with a quirked eyebrow. 

Kihyun flushed a bit as he watched Hyungwon open up a box of plastic silverware, feeling embarrassed for a couple of reasons. Him and Minhyuk’s affection for each other was so natural, he sometimes forgot how touchy they could be with one another and being called out on it made him feel self-conscious of his actions. But, regardless of that, he also reminded himself that Hyungwon was currently going through a confusing situation with Hoseok that didn’t appear to have been resolved yet and seeing two people constantly attached to each other was probably hard to watch, if not seeming a bit cruel. 

Kihyun separated himself gently from Minhyuk. Him and Hyungwon didn’t always get along, but he wasn’t going to avidly try and make him feel upset or uncomfortable. “Come on, we should get everything set up—people are going to be coming soon, right?” 

“Always so responsible.” Minhyuk sighed, but to the blond’s credit, he let Kihyun pull away and he himself moved to start setting up a hot plate to put the stew pot on top of so it could be brought to his appropriate temperature. 

The three worked in silence for some minutes until Hyungwon eventually broke it. “Is Hoseok still coming here with your Mom at some point?”

Kihyun froze.

“You probably would know better than me since you talk to Hoseok more than I do,” Minhyuk teased. “But I think he said they were coming around 1? I don’t remember, exactly. They’ll call me when they get here, I’m sure.”

Hyungwon had said something back, but Kihyun didn’t hear it. He stood stagnant in his spot, holding a medium-sized cooler filled with ice and banana milk as he stared with his eyes opened wide as his mind rushed at a kilometer a minute, trying to process the information he had just received like a slap in the face. 

“Mom?” said Kihyun to himself in a quiet voice, so quiet that he didn’t think that anyone would hear it. However, Minhyuk, who was always hyper aware of everything Kihyun did, turned to him instantly, hearing his voice as if he had spoken with a megaphone. 

“Yeah, didn’t I tell you that they were coming this weekend?” asked Minhyuk, taking a step towards Kihyun. He seemed to realize relatively quickly that the redhead was freaking out. 

“ _No_!” he hissed at him. “I would have remembered if you said your mother was coming!” He was in full panic mode.

“Wait, is that bad that she’s coming?” asked Minhyuk, the blond chewing on his lip as he watched Kihyun’s eyes remain the size of dinner plates. Minhyuk’s eyes darted around his face.

“I didn’t say that, but a warning would have been nice!” Kihyun exclaimed, running a hand through his hair as he felt his head begin to sweat.

He knew a bit about Minhyuk’s mother from what the other man had mentioned before. He remembered that she was a retired professional volleyball player, that she had been a stay-at-home mom until both Minhyuk and his brother Minjoon had left the house and now ran a small business on her own. He also knew that she was completely supportive of Minhyuk in all aspects of his lifestyle and was well aware that he was gay, but Kihyun had no idea whether the Minhyuk had told her that he was dating someone.

“I must’ve forgot, I’m sorry,” said Minhyuk hurriedly. He grabbed the cooler out of Kihyun’s vice grip to place it back on the ground, before taking his hands to rest them on the redhead’s shoulders and moving his face to be eyelevel with him. “She wanted to come because she was excited we were doing a Korean food booth and she was really interested in meeting you—I didn’t mean for it to freak you out, I swear.”

Kihyun stared at Minhyuk’s gorgeous face. So, the blond _did_ tell his Mom about him. That thought made him as happy as much as he was terrified—what if she didn’t like him and didn’t think he was good enough? What if he made a bad impression? What if she thought his cooking skills were awful and unworthy of her son and wished him to return to South Korea where he belonged?

“You’re thinking weird stuff, aren’t you?” Asked Minhyuk, leaning in a bit closer. “Yeah, you’re definitely thinking something weird and you’re totally panicking.”

“I’m not panicking.” It took all of Kihyun’s will power to not add ‘ _You’re panicking!_ ’ right afterwards.

“She’s going to think you’re great,” Minhyuk comforted, voice soft. His hands slipped from Kihyun’s shoulders to settle on either side of his face. “I promise. I’m sorry that I forgot to let you know, but I can promise that if I didn’t think she’d absolutely love you I wouldn’t have had her come.” He watched the taller man’s gaze shift between his eyes in an obvious attempt to read what Kihyun was feeling. “Do you…Do you want me to ask her to not stop by? I can tell her something like there’s too many people to visit, or something. She’ll understand without it being a problem.”

Kihyun stared for a moment before inhaling deeply and letting out the long breath right after. He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. Sorry, I just got a little overwhelmed at the prospect—I don’t want to make a bad impression.”

“You won’t.” Minhyuk smiled. He glanced around quickly, making sure that no one was looking directly at them and placed a quick kiss on Kihyun’s lips. “You’re super important to me and she knows that too—I don’t think you could make a bad impression unless you tried to stab me with a plastic spork or something.” 

“Okay…You’re important to me too,” he said quietly, before he bobbed his head back in confusion as Minhyuk removed his hands from his face. “Wait, what the hell is a ‘spork’? Are you making up words?”

Minhyuk laughed loudly at him, but didn’t explain what a spork was. 

☼

Eventually, they managed to finish setting up, all food placed where it should be and heated to the perfect temperature. At 11am, the festival officially began and the park started to fill with students, along with some friends and family. Hyunwoo thankfully joined their group as well to help out as much as he could. 

As more and more people began to trickle in and around the park, Kihyun noticed how popular their booth ended up being. He wanted to think it was because of how good the food he and Minhyuk had made was, but considering that every nine out of ten people that came up were all women, he realized it may have been because their booth was being attended by people like Hyungwon and Minhyuk who easily stole the show with their model like looks.

The food got multiple compliments, which normally would have filled the redhead with a massive sense of pride, but today his brain was just too preoccupied. It didn’t help that the booth had a near constant stream of people wanting to try the Korean dishes, but the idea of meeting more of Minhyuk’s family kept creeping back into his thoughts and making it a bit hard to focus (he even dropped two plates of food on account of him not paying attention and he was almost _never_ that clumsy).

Time crept by, and eventually Minhyuk paused serving food to answer his phone. 

“Oh, Hoseok-hyung,” Minhyuk greeted and Kihyun’s ears twitched at the sound as he watched the blond out of the corner of his eye. “Where are you two at? Our booth’s in the middle.” There was a pause as Hoseok’s voice came out of the receiver—loud enough to be heard, but not loud enough to understand what he was truly saying. Minhyuk rolled his eyes at whatever he was told. “Fine, I’ll come get you--be there in a minute.” He ended the call, turning to Hyungwon who was the closest to him. “I’ll be right back,” he said before jogging off in the direction of the park’s entrance.

At that moment there had been a small lull in the amount of people coming up, and Kihyun took the opportunity to crouch down behind the table, elbows on his knees and face in his hands. He felt like his chest was going to explode. 

_ Why am I freaking out so bad?! _ he thought to himself, feeling exasperated and like an immature teenager. He stayed that way for a minute until he felt a hand gently settle onto one of his shoulders. Thinking it was Hyunwoo, he glanced up, only to be surprised to see that it was Hyungwon crouching next to him, his lips pulled into his mouth as he looked at him.

“You okay?” Hyungwon asked him softly.

Kihyun released a shaky sigh before burying his head into his hands again, now adding embarrassment into the rainbow of feelings he was currently going through. “Yeah, just freaking out. Don’t mind me.”

Hyungwon’s hand didn’t leave his shoulder. “You like him a lot, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question. Kihyun nodded once and the other man let out a quiet chuckle. “Don’t kill me, but this response is really adorable.”

Kihyun tongued the inside of his cheek and raised his head to toss a half-hearted glare at the black-haired man. “Gee, thanks. That makes me feel _so_ much better.”

The corner of Hyungwon’s mouth twitched upwards. “Want to know something?” he didn’t wait for Kihyun to response. “Minhyuk has never had someone he was with meet his Mom before. So, if you’re asking me--.”

“I wasn’t.”

“That means he really, _really_ likes you. Likes you enough that he _wanted_ to make sure you would meet her.” Hyungwon glanced at Hyunwoo who was currently struggling to give someone change after they paid for their food. He smirked before turning back to Kihyun. “Anyway, take it for what you will. I know Minhyuk pretty much never has any tact with how he plans things, but the sentiment is pretty clear, don’t you think?”

Kihyun bit at his lip. Hyungwon was the last person he had ever thought to be giving him a pep talk, but here he was. He sighed again, this time a little less shaky and nodded his head. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Hyungwon. I mean it.”

Hyungwon nodded back as they heard the loud sound of Minhyuk’s laughter coming towards their booth. He slapped Kihyun’s back, smirking at him. “Alright, champ. It’s show time.”

“Did you really just call me ‘champ’?” he muttered, Hyungwon pulling him up with him as he stood. He had enough time to take another, massive mental breath as the smiling face of Minhyuk sauntered back over to them, Hoseok directly behind them followed by a pretty woman in her mid-forties. Kihyun clenched his hands to keep them from shaking. 

“Hey, guys!” the blond greeted cheerfully, he motioned at Hyunwoo. “Hyunwoo-hyung, this is my cousin Hoseok and my Mom.”

Hyunwoo smiled, eyes crinkled at the corners as he bowed to them. “Hello, it’s nice to meet you both.”

“And this--,” Minhyuk began, rushing around the table to grab Kihyun’s hand, pulling him out and around again to stand in front of his mother (who he quickly noticed was about as tall as Kihyun was), “is my boyfriend Kihyun. Kihyun, this is my Mom.”

As Kihyun looked at the older woman, he could tell instantly that Minhyuk was her son. They had incredibly similar face shapes and eyes, along with a nearly identical blinding smile. She had a few wrinkles that came with her age, but she was very pretty—Kihyun could guess where the taller man got his looks from.

He took another second to gather himself before he smiled shyly at the dark-haired woman. They had been speaking Korean up to this point, so he addressed her as such with a bow. “Hello, I’m Yoo Kihyun. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

His mother smiled back at him easily. “Oh my, aren’t you handsome! It’s so nice to meet you after I heard so much about you from Minhyuk.” She reached forward to put his free hand into hers briefly in a friendly gesture. She grasped it gently as she continued to smile at him, face filled with nothing but warmth. “I’m glad he’s met someone who makes him so happy—he just loves talking about you. You’ll have to come over for dinner sometime soon.” She looked over to Minhyuk. “You need to invite him over to eat—he’s thin like you and Hyungwon are.”

“Mom, you think everyone is thin,” sighed Minhyuk, but clear happiness was heard in his voice as he gripped at Kihyun’s hand that was still grasped in his, their fingers intertwining. 

They chatted for a little while, Hoseok going to help Hyungwon and Hyunwoo behind the booth to give them some space. The redhead could hear Hyunwoo asking Hoseok about what his workout routine was and instantly getting excited when he was told the pink-haired man was a personal trainer. He also could see that Hyungwon and Hoseok were standing together much closer than necessary, hands brushing against the other’s whenever they got the opportunity. 

Kihyun glanced at Minhyuk from the corner of his eye as his mother chatted with them, asking how classes were going and if they were eating alright. He saw that the blond man was beaming down at him, looking like he was close to the happiest he had ever seen him.

Kihyun beamed back, feeling much of the same.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I apologize for the bit of delay in this chapter again--I've been sick but I'm finally feeling better so I wanted to get this posted! I hope everyone enjoys it--and thank you everyone for reading and for leaving Kudos and comments. They make me so happy and excited :D
> 
> Also, don't be surprised if the chapter count changes somewhere down the line--I have been writing this as I go and thought I would be able to finish it in 15 chapters, but now that we're a bit pass the halfway point, I think they're will need to be a few more for it to finish the way I want it to.
> 
> Stay tuned! Tootles!


	10. Every Turn a Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Minhyuk's birthday weekend!

Minhyuk was pouting. He wasn’t trying to, really. For the most part, he thought of himself as a mature person (well, sort of, anyway) and normally he could handle being said ‘no’ to about most things. _Most things_.

Being told ‘no’ by his boyfriend was a bit of a different story, though.

It was Friday evening, shortly after 8pm. Him and Kihyun were snuggled up on the couch, with Minhyuk resting his back against the arm and Kihyun’s smaller frame nestled comfortably in between his legs with the redhead’s back resting against his chest. Minhyuk had his chin settled on the other’s shoulder, pout still in place as the two of them watched season three of _Brooklyn Nine-Nine_. The fourth episode of the season had just begun when Minhyuk released a loud sigh.

Kihyun sighed back, turning his head to glance at him. “Are you still sulking?”

“No,” he sulked, pressing his forehead into Kihyun’s shoulder. “Maybe,” he mumbled right after.

The smaller boy snorted quietly, raising a hand to ruffle Minhyuk’s hair before his face returned to the TV. “You’ll survive.”

“That’s not the point!” Minhyuk urged, using his arms that were loosely wrapped around Kihyun’s waist to shake him a little. “It’s my birthday weekend—I wanted to spend the whole weekend with you and then you tell me you can’t even see me tomorrow.”

Kihyun rolled his eyes as he turned back to look at Minhyuk, face only a few inches away. The blond knew he was beating a dead horse about the issue as this would have been the fourth time he brought it up that night, but he couldn’t help it—he could be _really_ needy. “Your birthday is on _Sunday_ , not Saturday and I’ll be here all day on Sunday for it. I just can’t be here tomorrow because of that project I have due on Monday.”

He huffed out a breath, pout firm as he brought Kihyun closer and hid his face into his neck. “I know you have a valid reason, doesn’t mean I still can’t be bummed about it,” he muttered, talking against his skin. “I know school’s more important, I’m just being selfish because I want to see you, is all. You’re the best present I have.”

“That was super cheesy.” Kihyun snorted quietly, but the other boy’s skin felt warmer than it had moments ago. He felt Kihyun lace his fingers with one of his hands that was still attached to his waist. “And it’s okay to be selfish every once in a while. Just know if I could be here tomorrow, I would.” He squeezed his hand briefly. “I’ll make it up to you on Sunday.”

“ _Fiiiiine_ ,” said Minhyuk, letting the pout finally fall from his face. He placed a kiss against the skin of Kihyun’s neck. “Can you at least spend the night tonight?”

“I don’t have my overnight bag with me,” Kihyun sighed.

“So? I have stuff you can wear. Your pajamas literally are just a shirt and underwear. Pretty sure I can handle that. I still have your toothbrush too,” rambled Minhyuk, speaking quickly to try and be convincing. “And I can drive you back to the dorms anytime you need tomorrow morning so it won’t delay your day at all. Okay?”

He watched as Kihyun tongued the inside of his cheek, his sleek eyes pointed at the television and not at him. After a moment, the other parted from Minhyuk’s embrace to grab the PS4 controller, pausing the show and tossing the controller back on the ground.

The blond released a whiny “Hey!” addressing both the lack of physical contact and the fact that one of his favorite episodes was being interrupted, the pout coming back at full force before he could stop it. He watched as the redhead turned around, pulling his body up to sit on his knees in the middle of the couch, perched between Minhyuk’s spread legs.

“Adults don’t pout—aren’t you going to be twenty-three?” Kihyun scolded him, sporting a small frown. He grabbed Minhyuk’s thighs, using force to pull him across the couch towards him. Minhyuk let out a squeak, his back suddenly flush against the couch cushions and the shorter boy’s knees now pressed near his groin with his own knees bent up in the air. He blinked at Kihyun, his lips parted in surprise as he watched the frown on the redhead’s face slowly morph into a smirk. He leaned forward, tilting his head to the side. “It _is_ pretty cute though, I guess,” he added.

Minhyuk, quickly adjusting to the change in mood, grinned. “I know, right? I’m pretty adorable. Makes people want to give me things.” He reached out, grabbing at Kihyun’s grey shirt, his fingers curling into the material as he tugged the other’s body closer.

Kihyun hummed, allowing himself to be pulled, positioning himself to have his face hover above Minhyuk’s. “Give you things, huh?” he asked, voice low. He moved in close enough to use his tongue to trace across the blond’s lower lip, smirking again when Minhyuk’s breath hitched. “What kind of things do you want?”

His own tongue darted out to lick over where Kihyun’s had just been as his breathing instinctively quickened. He stared directly into the brown orbs as he stated simply: “I just want you.”

Kihyun laughed shortly through his nose, his eyes darting off to the side before moving smoothly back to meet his again. “You already have me,” he said before capturing Minhyuk’s lips with his own.

Minhyuk took a quick intake of breath at the kiss, releasing it as a quiet moan against the other’s lips. He opened his mouth, allowing Kihyun to lick inside fully, loving the feeling of the redhead’s tongue against his own. He flung one arm around Kihyun’s shoulders, his other moving up to grip into his hair to pull him in as close as possible, tilting his head to deepen the kiss.

Kihyun slid himself forward, laying atop of Minhyuk’s body, their chests pressed together, pushing him even further into the soft cushions. Minhyuk could feel the shorter boy’s groin press down onto his own, triggering him to release a groan that was instantly eaten away by Kihyun’s mouth.

He felt him smirk before he pulled Minhyuk’s lower lip into his mouth. “So noisy,” he said, moving so he could place a kiss onto the corner of Minhyuk’s mouth before trailing them down his jaw where he began licking over his skin.

Minhyuk’s eyes fluttered shut at the sensation. “Whose fault is that?” he managed to get out as Kihyun slipped further down, stopping at the area where his neck met his shoulder—his favorite spot. The anticipation made him tremble. “Don’t act like you don’t like it,” he added right before he felt Kihyun sink his teeth harshly into him right at the junction. His mouth fell open in a low groan, his head falling to the side to give the other boy more room as he felt the bite turn into a rough suck. “Do it again,” he begged, shivering as goosebumps covered his skin.

“Noisy _and_ demanding,” Kihyun chuckled, licking over the bitten flesh before biting into it once more.

The blond gasped, eyes flying open and his legs quivered almost uncontrollably. He locked his feet around Kihyun’s body as he continued to shake. Kihyun was sucking continuously over the bite—the motion making the sensitive skin sting but also sending an incredible wave of pleasure through his body and straight through to his groin. He was going to have one hell of a bruise there, but he loved that fact. It was a souvenir of how Kihyun always made him feel—

Absolutely and completely wanted.

“You’re right, though.”

“Huh?” Minhyuk brow furrowed, letting out a hiss when Kihyun made one more pass over with his tongue over his bruised neck. His head was swimming and he had no idea what he was right about. In situations like this, Kihyun had a way of making Minhyuk lose all of the wit he was normally so proud of harboring. He swallowed thickly before speaking again. “Right about what?”

“About me liking you being noisy,” said Kihyun simply. Moving his head to talk softly into Minhyuk’s ear. “You’re right—I love making you moan.”

Minhyuk flushed at the words and as if on cue, he moaned loudly before he could help himself and he heard Kihyun snort at him. He gripped Kihyun’s hair in retaliation, moving his head away from his ear to crash their lips together. He felt a sense of pride when Kihyun let out a breathy groan in response, the other boy pressing his mouth with bruising strength against Minhyuk’s already swollen lips.

The two fought for dominance over the kiss, tongues battling against one another as it became more and more aggressive to the point that they were both fighting for air. Minhyuk moved against Kihyun with so much need that was eagerly matched back by his boyfriend with the same tenacity. He wanted Kihyun so much and in so many ways—he wanted Kihyun to be next him, to be together with him always, to continue to look at him with those piercing eyes.

And he wanted Kihyun to fuck him into the couch.

Minhyuk, not breaking the kiss, reached between their bodies to palm Kihyun through his jeans and he felt his erection twitch in response. Grinning against the boy’s lips, he slipped his hand to work open the button of Kihyun’s jeans when the deafening sound of a key turning the lock in the door sounded through the apartment. The two parted immediately and stared at each other with wide eyes—Kihyun looked like a fox about to be hit by a car.

The door opened and Kihyun, whose face was redder than Minhyuk had ever seen it, instantly pulled away and jumped to his feet. “Bathroom,” he choked out, nearly running in the direction of the hallway, leaving Minhyuk alone on the couch. Once the bathroom door slammed shut, Minhyuk let out an annoyed noise as he listened to the shuffling sounds of his roommate in the entrance.

“Well, he ran away fast,” Hyungwon’s voice commented from behind the couch.

“God damn it, Hyungwon!” Minhyuk hissed, sitting up to his knees to look at Hyungwon from the back of the couch. He glared at the lanky boy as he walked into the living room, looking at Minhyuk with a raised eyebrow. “You just fucking cock blocked me, you asshole.”

“Did I?” Hyungwon asked, raising the large sized slushie he had in his grip up to his mouth to take a sip. “Well, maybe this will teach you not to fuck around on the couch.”

Minhyuk groaned in annoyance as he flopped back down to sit against the arm of the couch, pulling his knees up to his chest to hide his hard on, head falling to rest on top of his knees. “I thought you got home at 8:30.”

“It’s already past 8:30, genius,” drawled Hyungwon, moving around to sit on the other side of the couch. He lifted his head as Hyungwon made himself comfortable, crossing his legs and taking another sip. Once he released the straw, he extended it out to Minhyuk. “Though I shouldn’t be surprised you didn’t realize it—you always sucked at math.”

Minhyuk snatched the freezing cup from Hyungwon’s hand. “I’m fine at math,” he said back, before he pouted. He looked down into the slushie, taking the straw and using it to mix up the crushed ice absently as he spoke. “Now Kihyun’s going to be stuck in the bathroom when he could have been spending more time with me.”

“You poor thing,” Hyungwon deadpanned. “How ever will you carry on?”

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t sass me when I have blue balls, thanks,” he muttered, then finally took a sip from the drink—it was grape flavored. “And don’t make fun of me for wanting to spend time with him—it’s my birthday weekend and I won’t be able to see even him tomorrow. You should be consoling me.”

Hyungwon blinked at him slowly. “I say again, ‘how ever will you carry on’?” Yet again, there was no sympathy what-so-ever. The jerk. “You’ll survive, Min.”

Minhyuk pressed his lips into a thin line as he glared at Hyungwon again. No one was being understanding of his moping today. He shoved the cup back into the black-haired boy’s hands. “Yeah well, now you’ll have to put up with me clinging to you all day tomorrow since I’ll be feeling lonely. Hope you’re excited.”

“Won’t be here—I’ll be with Hoseok most of the day,” Hyungwon shrugged and Minhyuk gaped at him.

“Are you _serious_? Ugh!” he slid down on the couch, his back flat and legs falling off the side as he threw an arm over his eyes. “Everyone _hates_ me.”

“No one hates you. Jesus Christ, you’re like this every birthday,” sighed Hyungwon. Minhyuk could hear him rolling his eyes as he kept his own covered. “It’s like you regress in age instead of getting older every year. Not like I won’t be here on your actual birthday.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” he mumbled, throwing his other arm up onto his face to join its partner. He realized that he was being a bit dramatic, but this was not how he expected his birthday weekend to end up, damn it! “Boyfriend is ditching me for school, best friend is ditching me for my cousin and now I’m stuck here on my couch with blue balls. _Awesome_.”

“You still have a boner, by the way.”

“ _Shut up_!”

 

☼

 

Kihyun inhaled deeply, crinkling his nose before he finally decided to open his eyes. He flipped onto his back, blinking a few times as he stared at the ceiling that was growing more and more familiar as the months passed—he was in Minhyuk’s bedroom.

Minhyuk, using his skills in begging and giving the most convincing puppy-dog eyes Kihyun had ever seen (seriously they should be _illegal_ ), managed to convince him to spend the night. As a product of the spur the moment sleepover, the two of them stayed up late fooling around in Minhyuk’s bed before eventually falling asleep, both sweaty and spent in each other’s arms. A wonderful way to spend a night, even he would admit that, but it left Kihyun feeling a bit exhausted when he still had a full day ahead of him which was only partially due to school.

He hadn’t lied to Minhyuk—he did, in fact, have a project due that following Monday that he did have to finish that weekend. However, the amount of work needed to be done was relatively minimal—only one or two hours was all he needed to finish it, which obviously wouldn’t take the whole Saturday. The main reason told Minhyuk he couldn’t spend more time with him was on account he was planning a secret trip to find the man’s birthday present.

With a little sigh, he shifted to his side, reaching carefully over a sleeping Minhyuk to check the time on his phone. He snorted to himself when he saw that it was 5:45—he may have been exhausted over his nightly activities, but he still somehow managed to wake up before his alarm. After turning the alarm off, he sat his phone back down onto the end table and moved to lay back down so he could look at the man next to him.

Minhyuk was completely out, face buried deep into his pillow, his bare torso on display as he had tossed the blanket off of himself at some point in the night. The redhead smiled, eyeing how Minhyuk’s bleached blond hair splayed messily in multiple directions. Unable to resist, he reached out and lightly stroked over the soft locks, petting him for a few moments while he still slept.

His hand slipped down to fall onto Minhyuk’s neck. He observed that the skin was now littered in a few more bite marks—a small one sitting under the taller man’s ear, another right on his jawline and the last one where his shoulder began. His expression fell into a small grimace at the site of it. It was dark purple and red, sitting swollen at the surface and looked painful. Kihyun bit his top lip as he traced the skin around the bruise, not wanting to make it any worse.

He _may_ have gone a bit overboard with that one. Whoops.

Kihyun indulged himself and watched Minhyuk sleep for a few more minutes (it was nice to stare uninterrupted) before he leaned forward, carding his fingers through Minhyuk’s hair.

“Minhyuk,” said Kihyun softly, trying to coax the other man awake. “Minhyuk, wake up.” Minhyuk didn’t move, his face still firmly planted into the pillow—he tried again. “Lee Minhyuk, wake up. Come on, open your eyes.” He moved his hand from Minhyuk’s hair to tap lightly on his shoulder.

Finally, the blond man made a tired sounding noise and moved his head so half of his face was showing as he squinted one eye at Kihyun, his lips slightly pouted. “Huh?” he looked adorably confused and barely awake.

Kihyun chuckled. “I told you to wake up—you said you would bring me home whenever I needed, right?”

“Really?” Minhyuk blinked sleepily at him, before moving to lay on his back, rubbing his eyes with the back of his forearm. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

The smile that settled onto the redhead’s face was involuntary—Minhyuk was _really_ cute when he was tired. He leaned over to peck the blond’s lips. “Yep, you did. You’ll keep your word, right?”

Minhyuk hummed, removing his arm from his eyes and letting it rest above his head. “Only if you kiss me again.”

The tips of Kihyun’s ears turned pink, per usual (honestly, would that shit ever stop!?) as he released a snort, rolling his eyes. “Always so demanding,” he muttered, but still leaned forward to press a kiss onto Minhyuk’s lips. His eyes slid closed as they stayed connected for a few seconds, before he pulled back. “Good?” he asked after he opened his eyes.

Minhyuk gave him a beautiful smile back that made his heart flutter in his chest. “Great.”  

Kihyun snorted, tugging on the top of his ear as he smiled back at Minhyuk. “You’re easily pleased.”

“I don’t know about that,” the other man quipped. He took that time to stretch his body languidly, his unclothed back arching in an almost elegant way as he let out a contented breath. When he released the stretch, his body collapsed back to the bed and he looked at Kihyun, giving him a wink. “But you are _really_ good at pleasing me, that’s for sure.”

Kihyun rolled his eyes turning away to get up. “You’re seriously the most shameless person I know,” he muttered.

“Not like you mind.”

“Hm,” hummed Kihyun, not making a comment. He made his way over to Minhyuk’s dresser, picking up a few small piles of his boyfriend’s dirty clothes that were scattered on the floor and shoving them into the nearly unused hamper. He took off the night shirt he had been loaned (also putting it into the hamper), leaving him clad in only his underwear as he opened the top drawer of the dresser to find a t-shirt he could steal for his trip home. As he continued to rummage through the unfolded clothes, he felt a pair of arms sneak around his waist. “Can I help you?” he asked, not pausing his hands as he searched for a suitable shirt to wear.

“Nope,” said Minhyuk, popping the ‘p’ loudly next to his ear. He felt the man settle his chin on his shoulder. “I just think it’s funny that you won’t wear the clothes you had on yesterday back home. That’s just so…you.”

Kihyun tongued the inside of his cheek after he pulled out a dark-blue Nike t-shirt and closed the drawer. “They’re dirty,” he sniffed. Turning around in Minhyuk embrace, he put some space in between them so Minhyuk held onto his waist at an arm’s length. The redhead’s eyes roamed down briefly to see that Minhyuk’s basketball shorts he had worn to bed were sitting so low on his hips that the root of his dick was nearly showing. He swallowed minutely before looking back up. “Anyway, I thought you liked when I wear your clothes,” he added, trying to distract from his obvious staring.

“Oh, I do. It’s super cute.” Minhyuk grinned at him. He removed one large hand from his waist so that he could slip his pointer finger into the elastic of Kihyun’s briefs. He slid the finger to the middle before pulling the elastic out only to let it snap back against his skin. “But you’re just as cute out of clothes too—mine or otherwise.”

He snorted shaking his head, smirking back. “See? Totally shameless,” he said. He took a hand and lightly pushed Minhyuk away, who pouted at him in turn. “Now, brush your teeth and get dressed. You need to bring me home so I can get my shit done.”

The blond let out a long sigh followed by a very dramatic exclamation of ‘Fiiiiiiiiine’, before he turned from Kihyun to walk to the bedroom door to most likely head to the bathroom.

Kihyun may or may not have stared at his ass until he left the room.

 

☼

 

Kihyun’s day had started off perfectly as planned. By 10am, he had showered, done the few chores that he needed to do around his dorm room and had finished his project for his class with his beautifully created power point uploaded to the class’s website. With this all done, he started the next phase of his day.

Within the next hour, Kihyun had convinced Hyunwoo to come along on his trip to the mall the next town over to help him find the perfect gift for Minhyuk. This is where his day began to go a bit awry.

He had never been particularly good at getting surprise gifts. Whenever he bought anything for his immediate friends (which, honestly, wasn’t often unless it was food), he was normally told what they wanted. In this case, Minhyuk never asked for anything and appeared to not expect a gift for his birthday which made Kihyun look around the fairly large shopping center nearly blind.

They had gone into multiple different stores, but nothing called out to him. He thought about getting a new headset for Minhyuk’s PS4, which would have been practical but seemed a little too impersonal and in turn not the right fit. He also thought about buying a stuffed whale to add to the blond’s large collection, but that seemed too cheap and, honestly, the last thing the man needed was more whales plushes. Then he settled on the possibility of getting Minhyuk some type of clothing item, but that was slowly but surely turning out to be a bad fit as well.

Him and Hyunwoo were currently in an Abercrombie and Fitch Store, which had dim lighting, ridiculously bad and loud music and smelt like the type of cologne someone would where when they had low self-esteem. He had only chosen the store as he had spotted a few of the brand’s items within Minhyuk’s wardrobe, but he just couldn’t decide on anything.

He sighed, feeling frustrated, as he shifted through a rack of men’s jeans. They were all acid wash and littered with an incredible amount of rips and holes. “What’s the point of spending almost a hundred dollars on jeans that are already wrecked?” he muttered to himself, even though he knew this type of jeans were what Minhyuk seemed to wear the most. A moment later, he realized that if he got him a pair, it would end up being a duplicate of something Minhyuk already owned a few times over and instantly gave up. He glanced up from the wrack to peer around the store to try and find where his bulky friend had wandered off to.

He spotted Hyunwoo near a table of shirts, awkwardly talking to one of the female workers who appeared very much interested in him while the older man sheepishly kept trying to back away. Kihyun contemplated watching for a little while (it was sometimes funny how awkward Hyunwoo could be in social situations), but decided that he would play the good friend and go to save him.

He walked over soon enough to hear the sales associate ask Hyunwoo, “But you’re arms are ripped—how much can you lift?”

“Uh,” Hyunwoo stuttered, looking around the store in a slight panic right as Kihyun stood next to him.

“Sorry, we have to get going,” said Kihyun, giving the girl the brightest smile he could muster before he grabbed onto Hyunwoo’s, admittingly, ‘ripped’ arm.

“But--,” the girl began as he started pulling them away.

“Thanks for your help, have a good day,” Kihyun called over his shoulder. He almost felt a little guilty at the look of clear disappointment that spread on the girl’s face as they left. _Almost_.

“Thank you,” Hyunwoo sighed, once they were outside the entrance of the store. “I kept trying to get away but she was being really persistent.”

“Yeah, seems like American girls are more aggressive than Korean ones, huh?” he asked. He glanced around the mall in attempt to find their next destination.

“They are,” nodded Hyunwoo. “Couldn’t find anything in there either?”

Kihyun huffed out a breath, wrinkling his nose in annoyance. “ _No_ , I’m completely at a lost as to what to get him.” He felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket and he instantly reached back to fish it out. “It’s pissing me off. Nothing is popping out to me that it’s _the_ gift, you know?”

Hyunwoo shrugged. “I guess. I wish I could suggest something, but I feel like buying gifts for girls is easier.”

“I’m just glad you came with me, so I didn’t have to go alone. Not like I could have brought Minhyuk with,” he muttered, phone now in his hands. Not surprisingly he had a few messages from the aforementioned person waiting for him in his notifications.

<Minhyuk: hey babe (six heart emojis) hope the project is going ok (monkey cover his mouth emoji)>

<Minhyuk: i miss you>

<Minhyuk: side note: good job on the hickeys. theyre eeeeeeeeeeverywhere haha (Ryan wiggling his butt sticker)>

Kihyun tried to ignore the heat that rushed up to his face. Ignoring the last message (addressing it would just indulge Minhyuk more), he typed a quick reply.

<Kihyun: Miss you too.>

After he hit send, he glanced at the time and realized that they had already been at the mall for a little over two hours with still no gift in hand. With a sigh, he pocketed his phone and pointed off to his left. “Let’s try down here,” he said to Hyunwoo who nodded back at him and they began to walk.

“I never thought I’d see you this way.”

“Huh?” Kihyun bobbed his head in the older man’s direction. “Like what?”

“Just this into someone,” said Hyunwoo shrugged his broad shoulders. “You were never into the people you dated and never wanted to commit to any of the guys you hooked up. It’s just unexpected, is all.”

“The people I dated in high school don’t count—they weren’t even the right gender,” chided the redhead and looking off to the side. “I didn’t expect it either, I guess. I think it was always hard to even entertain the idea of a relationship since my parents don’t know my…” he paused, trying to find the appropriate wording, “ _preferences_ , I guess. Plus, they just don’t like the idea of dating, anyway. I felt more freedom once we got here because they aren’t watching me under a microscope and then Minhyuk came along and well…” he trailed off.

“Wait, they still don’t know that your gay?” asked Hyunwoo, surprise evident in his tone. “Does Minhyuk know that?”

“Yes, I’ve told him.” Kihyun looked at Hyunwoo carefully. “And he says he understands. I explained how religious they are—on top of that, you know that homosexuality isn’t as excepted at home as it is in the States. I’m going to tell them eventually, but there’s no way I’m telling them over Skype or something. Coming out isn’t that easy, Hyung.” His tone ended up coming off as a bit defensive towards the end of his spiel, which he instantly felt bad for. “Sorry, that came out harsher than I meant it to.”

Hyunwoo shook his head. “No, it’s fine. We just don’t normally talk about this kind of stuff, so I’m sorry if I made it sound like something easy. It’s just that they’re your parents—you’re going to have to tell them eventually, but I can understand that it’s a scary idea.”

_Terrifying, actually_. “Yeah,” was all he replied and the two walked in silence.

It wasn’t as if he was _happy_ about hiding a huge aspect of his life from his family, but it was a complicated situation. He had heard horror stories of others in his same situation being disowned or rejected completely by their families once their sexual orientation was revealed. He didn’t know if he was ready for the prospect of that possibly happening to him yet. He would tell them when he was ready, hopefully sooner rather than later, but it had to be when he was completely sure that he could handle the outcome.

Absorbed in his thoughts, he hadn’t realized the Hyunwoo had stopped walking a few paces behind him. He glanced around to find him pointing off to the right. “Hey,” he started, “what about getting Minhyukkie something there?”

Kihyun blinked, eyes following to see Hyunwoo pointing at a upscale looking jewelry boutique. He tilted his head in contemplation—it couldn’t hurt to look, right? With a nod, the two of them headed over to look at the multiple glass display cases to see what they had to offer.

As they approached, a woman dressed sharply in a black dress suit spotted them instantly and swooped over to them like a hawk. “Good afternoon!” she greeted with a smile. “How can I help you two today?”

“Hi,” Kihyun said, a bit shyly. She was a little intense. “Um, I’m looking to maybe buy a gift.”

“A gift?” she repeated, smile not leaving her face. “Okay, well I’m sure we have something to offer. Who’s it for? Did you have any ideas on what you were looking for and a price range?”

Kihyun paused for a minute. He had no idea what Minhyuk’s ring size was and he felt a little embarrassed to buy him one. A bracelet or a necklace seemed like better options. “Maybe a bracelet or necklace—price would be around a hundred dollars,” he answered eventually, before adding quietly, “and it’s for my boyfriend.”

Not missing a beat, the woman beckoned them further into the boutique to lead them to a glass case toward the middle of the store. She walked behind the case as they were positioned in front of it. “A really popular gift right now are these personalized necklaces,” she explained, pointing a manicured finger onto the glass. It housed different styles of chains along with numerous styles of pendants. “You can pick out the style, length and material for the chain as well as the style of pendant you would like to add. For your price range, I’d recommend the sterling silver options for both the chain and the pendant—it’s sturdy, not incredibly expensive and if taken care of properly won’t tarnish and can last a lifetime.”

Kihyun nodded at the woman before looking back down into the case and feeling a little overwhelmed by the options. “It might take me a minute to look,” he muttered.

“No problem, I’ll leave you to take a peek, just motion me over if you want to look at anything out of the case.” With one last smile, she turned away to greet another customer that entered into store.

He looked down at the multiple pieces of jewelry below him. They were all rather pretty, and he felt that the silver would look perfect against Minhyuk’s pale skin tone. He chewed on his lip, taking a step over to look over the pendants to see if anything reminded him of Minhyuk.

There were a lot of cliché or gaudy options, such as different styles of crosses in an assortment of sizes that he immediately passed over, along with all of the flower themed pendants. His eyes roamed over the various bits of silver until they settled upon one. It was about the size of his thumbnail, a delicate silver “M”.

“I think I found it,” he said softly as Hyunwoo looked down to try and spot which one Kihyun was staring at.

“Did you want to see something up close?”

Kihyun glanced up as the woman in the dress suit came back behind the large glass case. He nodded at her, pointing over the M-shaped pendant that sparkled back at him. “I want this one.”

She smiled at him again, sliding open the door of the case to grab the velvet cushion it had been resting on. “This?” she asked before Kihyun nodded again. “Wonderful choice. Did you decide on a chain?”

Kihyun bit his top lip as he tapped above a thin, silver roped chain. “Do you have one that would hang about here?” he pointed at the space right below his collar bones.

“A sixteen-inch chain? Absolutely, let me get this put into a box for you. We offer free gift wrapping, would you be interested?”

“Yes, please.”

“Perfect. I’ll be right back,” the woman gave one final smile before taking the silver chain and pendant and walking towards the back of the room.

Kihyun let out a huge sigh of relief. The necklace was going to be a bit more than he had set out to spend, but that was okay—he felt like the necklace was perfect and Minhyuk was worth it. He looked over to Hyunwoo, who stood next to him as stoic as ever and gave him a smile.

“Thanks, Hyunwoo-hyung,” he said. “I never would have thought about getting him jewelry if you hadn’t suggest it.”

The bulky-man’s eyes crinkled as he smiled at him. “What are friends for,” he said, chuckling.

Feeling much lighter, Kihyun glanced out the wide, open entrance of the shop to look out into the mall. They were right by the food court and he thought that after he had officially made his purchase, he’d treat Hyunwoo to lunch for putting up with him today. As his eyes travelled across the various eateries, he blinked when he noticed a familiar, lanky man walking from the opposite side. It was Hyungwon and he wasn’t alone—he was with Hoseok.

He watched, interested, as Hyungwon smiled broadly at the pink-haired as he laughed. Kihyun could hear Hoseok’s laugh from across the mall. They were walking very close together and Kihyun could see that they were clearly holding hands.

As if on cue, Hyungwon looked up and their eyes met. Kihyun couldn’t help the smirk that slipped onto his face as he raised an eyebrow at him. Hyungwon, unperturbed, raised an eyebrow right back. He watched as the black-haired man turned back to Hoseok to say something close to his ear, before pointing to a food place off to their left. Hoseok, in turn, grinned and kissed Hyungwon on the cheek before separated to walk off in the direction. Hyungwon looked back at Kihyun before making his way across to the jewelry boutique.

Kihyun kept his eyebrow raised the entire time Hyungwon slinked over to them (which was easier than it sounded). Once he arrived, he watched the human string-bean shove a hand into his pocket and cock an eyebrow at him again. “Hey, Hyungwon,” greeted Kihyun as Hyunwoo murmured the same from his side. “You looked cozy just now.”

“Did I?” drawled Hyungwon, sounding bored, per usual. He looked down into the display case he and Hyunwoo were still standing in front of as they waited for their salesperson to return. “Buying an engagement ring?”

_Fucking Hyungwon._ Kihyun ears turned pink, but he managed to glare. “Do you see any rings in this case?”

“Touché,” said Hyungwon, glancing back up. “Birthday present for Minhyuk?”

“Maybe,” said Kihyun coolly. “You better not tell him you saw me here—it’s supposed to be a surprise.” Hyungwon made a motion with his hand to show that he heard him. “So, why are _you_ here? I’d have asked if it was to find Minhyuk a gift too, but it looked like you were having a date.”

Hyunwon blinked tiredly at Kihyun, raising a plastic bag from an electronics store he held in his hand. “I’m multitasking, so I did both.”

“Oh,” said Kihyun, bobbing his head back, “you _are_ on a date, then?”

Hyungwon snorted. “You and Minhyuk were made for each other—you’re both equally nosey,” he said, but didn’t delve further. “Did you buy Min a necklace or something?”

“Maybe,” Kihyun said again, wanting to be smart. Then he blinked—what if Minhyuk didn’t like jewelry? “Wait, is that a bad idea?” he asked, suddenly panicked and questioning his choices. If Minhyuk hated the gift he would be, embarrassingly, devastated.

Hyunwon laughed at him. “No, it’s a good idea—he loves shiny shit. He’s like a bird.” He smiled, almost kindly at Kihyun. “Plus, it’s from you. I’m sure he’ll love it.”

Kihyun bit his lip. _I hope so_ , he thought. He watched as Hyungwon turned to look behind him, before shifting back to look at Kihyun again. “I’m heading back—I’ll see you guys later.” He said, giving them a lazy wave before heading back to the food court.

“Do him and Hoseok have a thing?”

Kihyun looked deadpan at Hyunwoo. “Hyung, sometimes you are incredibly slow,” he muttered, and shortly after they left the mall, Minhyuk’s gift in hand.

 

☼

 

“Just play healer, Hyungwon.”

“But I don’t want to play healer—can’t you play it for once?”

“It’s my birthday, what I say goes.”

“It’s your birthday in _fifteen minutes_ , you toddler.”

Minhyuk listened as Hyungwon hissed at him, but grinned when he saw the lanky boy chose to play as Zenyatta on their team in Overwatch. It was a bit of a tradition they did. The night before Minhyuk’s birthday, they normally spent playing video games into the wee hours of the morning. Even though he had spent the majority of the day by himself, at least the night was panning out the way he had wanted to. He wished that Kihyun would also be there, but sometimes it couldn’t be helped and he had to at least _attempt_ to be mature about it.

They played through the match, and lost brutally against the enemy team, making Minhyuk groan in frustration. “We’re getting rusty,” he whined, tossing his controller to the side.

“Well, we haven’t been playing as much. What do you expect,” drawled Hyungwon. He never was as upset at losing as Minhyuk was.

“That’s because you spend all your time with Hoseok,” said Minhyuk, slowly turning to grin at the other boy. “So, how was your date, by the way?”

Hyungwon released a sigh as he set his controller down onto the coffee table. “It was fine,” he said.

Minhyuk eyebrows raised to his forehead at the statement. “Oh, so it _was_ a date, then?”

Hyungwon laughed to himself, seeming to think something Minhyuk didn’t get was quite funny. “Seriously, you guys _are_ made for each other. It’s kind of hilarious.”

His raised eyebrows slowly furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Hyungwon laughed a bit more before saying, “Nothing. Wanna play another round?”

Minhyuk opened his mouth to respond when a sudden knock at the door startled the two of them. The both looked at it in confusion before turning to look at one another. “Did you order pizza or something?” Minhyuk asked.

Hyunwon pulled his large lips into his mouth as he shook his head. “No,” he said, “and I didn’t invite anyone either.”

The blond pursed his lips into a thin line as he slowly got up from the couch to walk to the door, Hyungwon watching him as he went. He took a peek through the peephole to see if anyone was still there and his face instantly broke out into a smile when he recognized the form standing in the hall.

He pulled the door open with a flourish and jumped out to envelop the smaller frame of Kihyun into his arms. “Kihyun!” he said, excitedly, squeezing the body hard. “I didn’t know you were coming over!”

He heard Kihyun release a loud ‘oof’ as he pushed all the air of his lungs with the force of his hug. “Leggo,” he huffed out with what air he had and Minhyuk separated from him. Once he caught his breath, he held his phone out for Minhyuk to see the time read 12:01. Kihyun raised an eyebrow at him. “I said I’d spend the whole day with you, didn’t I?” said Kihyun, Minhyuk now realizing he was carrying his backpack, appearing to intend to sleep over. “If you want me to, that is.”

A huge grin spread onto his face as he grabbed the redhead’s wrist to pull him into the apartment. “Of course, I want you to,” he purred. “Kihyun’s sleeping over!” he called to the living room.

“Yeah, figured as much,” he heard hyungwon mumble before releasing a yawn and by the sounds of it he had started a new match of Overwatch by himself.

“Come on, let’s bring my bag to your room,” murmured Kihyun, neatly setting his sneakers onto the floor and grabbing onto the sleeve of Minhyuk’s sweatshirt to lead him through the living room and to the hallway.

Once they entered his bedroom and closed the door, Minhyuk flopped onto his bed, grabbing Jeremy the Whale and scooping him into his arms. He watched Kihyun set his backpack at the foot of the mattress to open it and start fishing around inside.

“This is an awesome surprise,” said Minhyuk, grin still plastered on his face as he tossed the plush in the air to catch it in his hands.

“I’m all about surprises,” said Kihyun, digging deep into his backpack and looking frustrated for a moment as it looked like he couldn’t find what he was looking for. A moment letter, he smiled, pulling out a small package wrapped in blue paper and tossing it into Minhyuk’s lap. “Here.”

“What?” he said in surprise, eyes widening as he looked at the package in confusion. He put Jeremy to the side. “For me?”

Kihyun rolled his eyes and started tugging on his ear. “Obviously. Just open it.”

Minhyuk’s heart fluttered for a moment. He hadn’t expected Kihyun to get him anything, realizing being an exchange student without a job left him without a lot of money to spend. He chewed on his bottom lip, taking the gift gingerly into his hands and slowly opened it.

He removed the paper, revealing a small black box with a clasp at the front. His heart beating a bit quicker, he undid the clasp, flipping the lid open to reveal a delicate, silver chained necklace with a shiny pendant shaped like a capital ‘M’. His eyes widened further, mouth parting as he looked at Kihyun quickly, then turned back to the necklace. It was pretty, but simple. Something he could easily wear every day—which he absolutely would. He loved it. “I love it,” he said out loud, his voice quiet.

A relieved sigh escaped Kihyun’s lips, making the blond look to him once more. He wore a shy smile. “I’m glad,” he said. “Happy birthday.”

Minhyuk smiled back, feeling a bit overwhelmed. He pulled the necklace out from the case and clasped it around his neck, making sure the pendant was settled in the center. It hung just below his collar bones.

He stood up and closed the short distance between him and the redheaded boy and wrapped his arms around him, burying his head into his neck. “Thank you,” he said, his voice still quiet as he smiled against Kihyun’s skin. “Best birthday ever.”  

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter!! Thank you all so much for reading--all feedback given is always greatly loved and appreciated c: 
> 
> I'm going to try for weekly instead of bi-weekly updates again. I've been super excited to be able to write the next chapter, so please look forward to it. It's going to be called "Magic Carpet Ride". Any idea what might happen? haha :D
> 
> <3


	11. Magic Carpet Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas arrives and Minhyuk plans something special for him and Kihyun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: smut in this chapter

When the month of November passed by, Kihyun ended up looking back at it as one of the best months he had ever experienced. Minhyuk’s birthday had ended up being wonderful and once the blond had received the necklace Kihyun had gotten for him, he was never seen without wearing it (which ended up making Kihyun ridiculously happy).

When Kihyun’s birthday came around on the 22nd, all he had expected to do was hang around with the small group of people he had come acquainted with since coming to America. What he hadn’t expected was Minhyuk taking him to have a huge dinner at _A Little Taste of Osaka_ (funnily enough, he had never eaten there until this point). The food was fantastic and at the end of it Minhyuk had gifted him a vintage, polaroid camera that fully worked and came with a ton of film—his dorm room was now littered with candid shots of Minhyuk grinning at him along with multiple pictures of them together.

The month ended with Thanksgiving break, with Kihyun and Hyunwoo being invited to join Minhyuk’s family for the event. Kihyun ate himself into a coma and got to meet Minhyuk’s father, who was a stoic, but very kind man, much like Hyunwoo (not surprisingly, the two ended up hitting it off).

November finally bled into December and it was the week before the end of the semester. Kihyun was panicking, trying to prepare for his first round of finals in his five classes and was spending nearly all his free time in the library. Minhyuk, who was also preparing for exams of his own, tagged along every time he could.

It was Thursday evening, the following Monday the exams would officially begin and Kihyun was seated at a small, two-person table in the library with Minhyuk seated across from him. He hadn’t moved from the spot for close to two-and-a-half hours.

He glared down at the page in his open textbook, highlighter in hand. How many times had he read over this page already? He’d lost count at this point, but what he did know was he hadn’t absorbed any of the information no matter how many times he went over it.

He released an internal sigh, setting his highlighter down onto the wooden table. He leaned back in his chair, rubbing the heel of his palms into his eyes. He was getting close to the point of _over_ studying, where his brain was fried to the extent that it wasn’t remembering any of the new information he tried to shove in it. He should probably take a break, but when he did, it made him anxious and feel like he was being lazy.

He sighed again, this time out loud, before he let his hands fall to his lap. He raised his head up to look across the table at the man sitting in the other chair, allowing himself to be distracted for a minute.

Minhyuk’s thin-rimmed black glasses were sitting perched on his nose as he stared down at his laptop, his lips formed into a thin line in concentration while his eyes darted back and forth across the screen. He was wearing a black sweatshirt with the University’s logo on it, one knee tucked under the sweatshirt to sit against his chest while the other leg dangled off the chair.

Kihyun crinkled his nose at the man’s sitting position. “Min, don’t sit like that—you’re going to hurt your knees.”

The blond glanced at him from above his glasses, before looking back down. “’S comfortable,” he grumbled, but Kihyun was pleased to see that he slowly shifted so his leg joined the other one on the floor.

Kihyun smiled to himself, picking up his highlighter once more and looking down to the book again. He spent the next five minutes trying to read the page once more. He, yet again, failed miserably and the page stayed highlighter free.

Minhyuk released a frustrated groan a moment later that made Kihyun look back up. He watched as the taller man snapped his laptop shut and dramatically collapsed onto the table, arms folded in front of him and head buried within them. “I’m brain dead,” he groaned into the table. “Pull the plug on me Doc--end my misery.”

Kihyun snorted, though internally he was relieved that Minhyuk seemed to be feeling the exact same way he did. He leaned forward on his elbows to poke at the top of Minhyuk’s head with the capped end of his highlighter. “You talk pretty well for someone whose brain dead.”

“I’m brain dead more figuratively than literally,” mumbled Minhyuk. “I couldn’t study anymore even if I wanted to—I think I’m at full capacity.”

He hummed in agreement as Minhyuk stayed in his collapsed position. Kihyun absently moved a stray lock of his boyfriend’s hair that had shifted to the opposite side of where it belonged. Once it was settled where it should be, he dropped his highlighter to the table for the last time that night. “Let’s go back to my dorm—I can’t concentrate anymore, either.”

Minhyuk popped his head up so fast it reminded Kihyun of a meercat, hope on his face. “Can I sleep over?”

Kihyun let out a long sigh, slowly closing his textbook and sliding it into his backpack. He had every intention of saying yes to the other’s request, but he didn’t need to know that. “Only if you don’t try and get into my pants—Hyunwoo will be in there too.”

Minhyuk gasped in mock outrage, hand to his chest. “What!? I would _never_!”

“You would _always_.”

The blond laughed at that, picking up his messenger bag from its spot on the floor and opening it to put his computer inside. “Don’t worry, I will be the best behaved boy you’ll ever see,” he spoke with a grin.

“Fine then, you can stay.” Kihyun kept his face down to hide the smile that appeared—seriously, Minhyuk’s grins were nearly always contagious whether he wanted them to be or not.

Once they packed up all of their belongings, they made their way to exit the library through the underground tunnels of the school which was one of the things Kihyun thought was the coolest. With it being December, the college town had been hit with a fair amount of snow and cold weather—the fact that he could avoid going outside to get from one place on campus to the other in a heated, underground passage was a complete God send.

As Kihyun led the way to the route towards the international dorm, he felt a hand sneak his way into his own. He glanced at Minhyuk who was smiling down at him affectionately while he interlaced their fingers. Kihyun raised an eyebrow at him before looking forward once again, but kept their hands interlocked. He was still a little shy about holding hands in public, but the tunnel was, thankfully, completely barren so he didn’t mind the contact.

“Did you hear back from your parents about winter break yet?” Minhyuk asked, his voice echoing a bit as they made their way through the tunnels.

“Yeah—they can’t afford a round trip from Seoul and back, so I’ll be staying here.” Kihyun shrugged. He wasn’t surprised by the news at all. “Hyunwoo’s family offered to pay for me to come home but I told them no. For only nineteen days it doesn’t feel worth it and it would just mess up my sleep schedule anyway.”

“Always so practical,” cooed Minhyuk, swinging their hands in between them. “So, since you’ll be staying here, I had a proposition for you for Christmas.”

He raised an eyebrow in his direction again. “A proposition?”

“Uh-huh,” nodded Minhyuk, still swinging their hands. “I thought we could go on a little trip together.”

Kihyun paused their walking and Minhyuk followed suite as he turned to him. Kihyun furrowed his brow. “Aren’t you going to be spending it with your family?” he asked. “I don’t want you to change plans because of me. Christmas is a time that should be spent with them.”

Minhyuk rolled his eyes. “You’re my family too, dummy.” Kihyun blushed—that statement went straight to his chest. “But, you’re right. Normally I would have just invited you over like I did for Thanksgiving, but mine and Hyungwon’s parents are going on a cruise over the holidays and won’t be back until after New Year’s. I’ll be celebrating Christmas stag regardless this year.”

Kihyun, trying to ignore the flush on his cheeks, looked down at their linked hands as he bit at his top lip. “I’d like to, Min, but I don’t really have a lot of spare money to go anywhere…” he trailed off quietly, feeling a little embarrassed. He had been only working with what he had in savings, which wasn’t a massive amount. Thankfully, come the Spring semester he was going to be working a job on campus, but until then he was nearly broke.

Minhyuk reached out to tilt his chin back up so their eyes would meet, he was smiling at him. “I already got it covered. You know how I told you Hyungwon’s family runs a travel agency? I called them and they gave me an awesome deal—it’s basically free, seriously.”

Kihyun stared at him carefully. “What do you mean by ‘basically free’? I feel like you’re just saying that to try and make me feel better.”

“By ‘basically free’ I mean that they were able to book a place for two nights for only seventy-five bucks.”

Kihyun’s mouth dropped. “…There’s no way.”

The blond grinned, the expression looking very smug. “Where there is a will there is a way, my adorable friend. Hyungwon’s family _loves_ me. Said this deal was my Christmas present.” He leaned in closer to look at Kihyun intently. “So, how ‘bout it?”

Kihyun chewed on the inside of his cheek. The answer to him was a no brainer—of course he wanted to go. But he also couldn’t help but feel guilty about Minhyuk spending money on a trip for them, no matter how cheap the cost. After a moment of thought, he finally spoke: “Will you let me pay you half the money back when I start working next semester?”

Minhyuk huffed out a laugh. “Will that make you feel better?” Kihyun nodded. “Okay, I’ll take that. Are we going then?” Minhyuk tilted his head in question, though it was obvious he already knew Kihyun’s answer.

“ _Yes_ , of course I’ll go,” he rolled his eyes, small smile on his lips and he watched as the taller man light up like a Christmas tree.

“YES!” Minhyuk shrieked, hopping in excitement. Every sound he made bounced off the walls of the tunnels with the acoustics of an opera house, but the blond couldn’t be bothered to care. He stepped into Kihyun’s personal space and lightly pushing him into the wall behind his back.

“Hey,” Kihyun started as Minhyuk moved flush against him, trapping their hands between their chests, “we’re in public,” he hissed, glancing around the still empty tunnel, his ears burning.

“Deal with it, I’m happy,” Minhyuk purred, leaning down to Kihyun’s level, talking only a breath away.

Kihyun licked his lips, before he released a mildly exasperated sigh. “Just shut up and kiss me, then.”

“Roger that,” the blond grinned and quickly closed the space between them.

 

☼

 

Minhyuk breathed a sigh of relief once all his exams and final reports were finally finished. Not so much that he was stressed about how he had done—he always did well with exams and knew this semester would be no different—but more so because it seemed like the figurative 300lb weight that Kihyun had been carrying on his shoulders had finally been lifted. He knew their Christmas trip was just what the redhead needed to relax and unwind before the process would start all over again with the spring semester.

The little vacation Minhyuk had planned for himself and Kihyun was located at a little tourist trap of a town about an hour north from their college. During the summer, the town was normally packed with tourists, taking advantage of the national park close by and the large lake for fishing, kayaking and other outdoorsy activities. The wintertime was, bar far, a dead time for the little town even though the whole area looked beautiful with the frozen lake and trees covered in snow. Minhyuk was positive that Kihyun would love it out there, if it wasn’t for the quiet it would be for the scenery he would no doubt be excited to capture with his camera.

The two of them were currently in Hyungwon’s car (the black-haired boy, after a lot of continual nagging from Minhyuk, eventually relented and let Minhyuk borrow it), about three-quarters of the way to their destination. It was Christmas Eve.

“How old is this car, anyway?” asked Kihyun, looking at the tape-deck with a frown.

“This baby was new back in ’94,” quipped Minhyuk, rubbing the cracked material of the steering wheel somewhat fondly. “Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme—it’s basically a classic.”

“A classic that no one has heard of, maybe,” snorted Kihyun. “I can’t remember the last time I saw a car with a cassette player.”

“And alas,” said Minhyuk with a sigh, “the cassette player doesn’t work.” The radio did, but the portion of the highway they were travelling on was a dead spot for reception and the radio wouldn’t pick up any stations. They were currently listening to some Korean singer Minhyuk had never heard of playing from Kihyun’s phone, just loud enough to be heard over the heat blasting on them from the car’s vents.

“Good thing I didn’t bring my mixtape.” Kihyun laughed through his nose and through the corner of his eye, he saw the shorter man lean against the car door to look out at the trees that passed by the window. “This feels like we’re heading into a _Friday the 13 th_ movie.”

Minhyuk narrowed his eyes, albeit playfully, at Kihyun’s profile. “Do _not_ compare my romantic Christmas getaway to a B-rated horror movie, Yoo Kihyun.”

Kihyun turned from the window to look at him, eyebrows raised. “Didn’t you say that we’re staying at a cabin on a lake? That’s literally the first movie.”

“That took place at a _summer_ camp,” said Minhyuk. “We’re staying in a resort cabin—it’s totally different.”

The other boy hummed quietly but made no response. They passed by a road sign that showed they were only a quarter mile away and a smile settled in on his face. “Almost there!” he chirped happily, reaching across the middle seat to grab Kihyun’s hand, which had been sitting stagnant against it. “Hand’s cold,” he smiled at Kihyun who merely rolled his eyes at him.

“Doesn’t feel cold,” he said back to him, but made no move to take his hand away. He felt the redhead start rubbing circles on the back of his hand with his thumb. “Thanks for planning this,” Kihyun spoke softly. “I never would have thought to do something like this—I’m really happy you did.”

Affection took over Minhyuk’s entire being as he glanced over at Kihyun (and cursing internally because he was driving and wasn’t able to stare at the adorable boy properly—first world problems). “You can thank me once we’re in the car back home and you’re gushing about how much fun you had,” he grinned, squeezing Kihyun’s hand lightly. “Or you can thank me if the cabin we’re staying at has a bearskin rug.”

Minhyuk could feel a judgmental stare on the side of his face. “…why?”

“Because I’m _totally_ going to lay naked on it.”

“You’re the most ridiculous person I have ever met.”

“Babe, I take that as a compliment.”

 

☼

 

To Minhyuk’s disappointment, the cabin did not have a bearskin rug. It was, however, a lovely place. The cabin was small, the first floor comprised of a kitchenette and a mini fridge right off from the door when you walked in. There was a large electric fireplace with a flat screen TV hooked up above it which both sat in front of a handmade coffee table and a plush leather sofa, and a spiral staircase in the corner led up to a small loft that housed a king-sized bed. The whole cabin was decorated in rustic-themed items including a set of handcrafted snowshoes on the wall and all lamps were made from deer antlers. It was adorable and homey and Minhyuk couldn’t wait to snuggle with Kihyun in front of the fireplace among testing out the massive bed upstairs to its full capabilities.

They spent the majority of the day after arrival out and about. The day was a chilly one, but that didn’t stop Kihyun from wanting to peruse around the resort to take pictures of the snow covered trees, the frozen lake littered with icehouses, birds and the few deer they saw scattered around. Watching Kihyun get so incredibly excited once he saw the deer was one of the most endearing things he had ever seen (he told this to Kihyun and the boy did not appreciate his pun).

At 6pm, it was already completely dark outside. They had decided to settle in for the evening, but not until they ran to the local KFC (the only fast food place in town) and picked up a twelve piece bucket of extra crispy chicken with multiple sides.

“I can’t believe that I’ve been dating you for three months,” began Minhyuk from his seat on the couch, only pausing to lick the grease from his fingers, “and I didn’t know that your favorite food is fried chicken.”

Kihyun handed him a napkin absently. “Not my fault you’re not observant. Use that to clean your fingers, not your mouth.”

“The slogan of KFC is literally ‘ _finger lickin’ good_ ’, and you’re telling me to use a napkin,” sighed Minhyuk. “But I _am_ observant! I literally haven’t seen you eat chicken even _once_ since I’ve known you.”

The redhead shrugged a shoulder while he picked up a drumstick and took a large bite out of it. He spoke around the mouthful. “If I ate it as much as I wanted to, I’d become round like a human basketball.”

Minhyuk hummed. “I don’t know, that’d be pretty fun. I could roll you around with me and watch your chubby arms flail in the air.”

Kihyun started laughing and in turn inhaled a piece of chicken and started coughing loudly as Minhyuk attempted to do damage control by slapping his back as hard as he could to dislodge the food from his throat. “Ah, _ow_!” he shouted, once he could talk again. “You don’t need to pulverize me!”

“Um, more like I was saving you, Mr. Ungreatful,” Minhyuk quipped, placing a clean bone onto the lid of the bucket and grabbing another piece. “It’s your own fault for putting so much fucking food in your mouth that it fills your cheeks like a hamster.”

The shorter boy’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t do that.”

Minhyuk laughed loudly. “You do that _every time_ you eat.”

“Whatever,” sniffed Kihyun, going back to his chicken, but he was clearly attempting to take smaller, more reasonable bites. Minhyuk decided not to comment on it and just smiled to himself as they continued to eat.  

They ate in silence for a time before Kihyun broke it. “I feel bad that you paid for dinner, too.”

The comment surprised Minhyuk and he glanced over to see the other looking at the floor, biting at his top lip. “I eat more than you anyway, so it’s not a big deal,” said Minhyuk, fiddling with a napkin absently. “If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t have offered—you know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know,” Kihyun mumbled. “I’ll treat you to a really nice dinner once I get more money.”

Minhyuk’s eyes softened as he scooted a bit closer on the couch so that their thighs were touching. He knew that Kihyun didn’t have a lot of money, especially with having no job while being a student, but he was pretty sure that the redheaded boy spent nearly all his extra cash on the necklace he gave Minhyuk for his birthday.

Kihyun would never tell him the price of it, but Minhyuk could tell it was far from cheap, and he couldn’t help but worry that his boyfriend may have put himself into hot water by buying him such a gift. He’d be lying to say that on some level, Minhyuk was trying to return the favor by trying to take some of the pressure off by treating for things when he could. He hoped that didn’t backfire.

 “You don’t have to feel like you owe me anything,” he said softly. He quickly made sure his hands were relatively clean before slipping his arms around Kihyun waist from the side. He pulled the shorter boy towards him and let them fall against the back of the couch and nuzzled his face into the soft skin of Kihyun’s neck. “I’ll never say no to a dinner-date with you, though. Just don’t feel like it’s an obligation, okay?”

He felt Kihyun shift a little as he turned his body to face Minhyuk while he was held, settling against him and wrapping an arm around Minhyuk as well. “It doesn’t feel like an obligation,” he said with a short sigh, pulling the blond in as close as he possibly could. “It’s just hard--I wish I could do more for you, _with_ you, but I can’t always do that and it sucks.”

Minhyuk hummed, pulling back far enough so he was able to look directly at Kihyun’s face. His cheeks were splotched with pink. He smiled softly, reaching out to run a hand through the red locks and Kihyun leaned into the touch. “You worry _way_ too much,” chided Minhyuk, though it sounded very affectionate. “This is going to sound stupidly corny, but here it goes anyway: I wish there was a way for me to tell you how fucking happy you make me. Seriously—everything you do makes me happy. Things like how you look at me in a way that seems as if you can’t see anyone else or how you smile at me when you don’t think I’m paying attention.”

Minhyuk laughed briefly. “I’m even happy when you scold me for being messy or tell me that I should be studying instead of sending you nothing but stickers on KakaoTalk. As long as I get to spend time with you, I couldn’t care less as to what we’re doing, whether it’s going out to eat at a fancy restaurant or just hanging out on my shitty couch watching Netflix. If you stay with me, I’ll seriously be the happiest person I’m capable of being.”

The entire time Minhyuk was talking, explaining how Kihyun made him feel, he was watching as the other’s face continued to become redder and redder, color increasing like watching a thermometer go up in temperature. Unable to resist, Minhyuk grinned at Kihyun. “Okay, rant over—you can stop turning into a tomato now.”

Kihyun’s eyes widened, hands moving up to his face as if to try and cool it. He pulled away so that he could lean over, burying his face down near his own knees. “Oh my God, you’re _killing_ me,” he mumbled, his voice almost hard to understand as it was muffled by his hands.

The blond’s grin widened. He draped his body over Kihyun’s back, talking directly into Kihyun’s bright-red ear. “Didn’t know I could kill you with the truth, babe.” He placed a kiss against the shell of the other’s ear and loved the fact the Kihyun shuddered. “You’re adorable when you’re embarrassed.”

“Ugh!” Kihyun said, sitting up and in turn making Minhyuk’s body slide off of his back. “I’m going to clean up,” he said, the corner of his mouth twitching as he shoved Minhyuk (gently) away from him. “And stop grinning at me—it makes you look like a crazy person.”

“Well, I’m crazy about you so I guess that works.”

Kihyun jumped up from the couch and threw his hands in the air. “Jesus Christ,” he said, grabbing the paper plates from the table and swiftly walking them over to the garbage can next to the kitchenette.

Minhyuk couldn’t stop the giggle that bubbled out of his chest as he watched Kihyun. He got up from the couch as well and cracked his back. “I’ll let you take care of the mess. I’m going to take a bath,” he said, walking away from the couch towards the bathroom—he had scoped out earlier that it had a jacuzzi tub and if he didn’t take at least one bath while they were there, he would feel like a disgrace.

“”kay,” he heard Kihyun say from somewhere behind him.

“I’ll be naked in the bathtub if you need me,” Minhyuk sing-songed grinning at Kihyun over his shoulder who stared at him wide-eyed. The blond blew him a kiss before closing the bathroom door.

 

☼

 

Kihyun let out a soft groan when his back hit the mattress of the king-sized bed. Hands down, it was the softest bed he had the pleasure of laying on and a small part of him wanted to spend the rest of their time at the cabin snuggled into it.

“I never want to move again,” he muttered to himself, mattress against his back with his arms and legs splayed out like he was imitating a starfish. The bed was so large that there was still room to spare even with him taking up as much space as he was able.

“What are you mumbling in Korean about?”

The redhead glanced up, watching as Minhyuk ascended from the spiral staircase and into the loft. The blond was clad in plaid pajama pants and a white t-shirt. His hair was still a little damp from the bath he had taken earlier.

“Was I talking in Korean?” he asked, flopping his head back down onto the pillows. “Hadn’t noticed.” He felt a weight dip into the side of the bed and a moment later he was covered by another body like a human blanket. “Hi?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Hi,” chirped Minhyuk. The man’s long legs were folded on either side of Kihyun and he was crouched over to lay against his chest.

Kihyun’s heart skipped a beat as he was nuzzled into. He smirked down. “This bed is pretty big, you know. No need to lay on me.”

Minhyuk hummed in thought, lifting himself so he was sitting lightly on Kihyun’s thighs and a grin fell on his lips. “But why would I lie on the bed when you’re so comfortable? Besides, I’m not in the mood to sleep anyway.”

Kihyun tilted his head, eyes absently roaming up and down Minhyuk’s body while his pulse quickened. “You’re not, huh?”

Still grinning, Minhyuk grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt and removed it in a single swoop, leaving his upper body beautifully bare. He ruffled his blond locks briefly before looking back down. “Nope.”

“Ah,” Kihyun managed to say, swallowing thickly when Minhyuk leaned forward to crawl up the length of his body to stop just short of his face. “What did you have in mind?”

“Oh, a few things,” said Minhyuk offhandedly. He reached down to pull at the hem of Kihyun’s own shirt and the redhead lifted up to let it be pulled off him, leaving him only in his underwear—he could already feel himself responding. Minhyuk started littering his neck with soft kisses and his hands were traveling up and down Kihyun’s bare stomach and chest.

“Wha…” he had to swallow again. “What kind of things?”

He felt Minhyuk nip at his ear before he moved back down, kissing down his collar bones. “Oh, you know,” said Minhyuk, playfully. “Like making out, grinding against each other, getting completely naked,” he continued, teeth grazing one of Kihyun’s nipples. He jerked at the sensation and looked down to see Minhyuk staring up at him with a coy smile. “And maybe you could fuck me into this gigantic bed.”

A jolt travelled through Kihyun’s body and went straight to his dick at the words. Thoughts turning into a blur, he grabbed Minhyuk’s arm to pull the man up, only to use the movement to flip them over so that the blond was lying underneath him.

He dove in head first, capturing Minhyuk’s lips with his own and loving the sound of the instant moan that escaped the blond’s lips. He licked into the receptive mouth, tongue sliding against the other as he pressed his crotch down into Minhyuk’s below him.

They both groaned at the friction, Minhyuk rocking upwards after he wrapped one of his legs around Kihyun in an attempt to increase the contact. They kissed for some time, but eventually it grew more heated, more desperate and it didn’t take long to hear his boyfriend release a breathy whine into his mouth.

“Not enough,” Minhyuk gasped between kisses, “need more.”

Who was Kihyun to refuse? He parted from the kiss, moving down to briefly bite into Minhyuk’s neck on his way down. He stopped at one of Minhyuk’s nipples, covering the whole thing with his mouth to suck harshly, tongue flicking over the bud before he felt it harden with his teasing. He pulled it gently between his teeth and tugged.

“Kihyun,” Minhyuk moaned as he breathed out, his eyes closing briefly.

“Do you have any stuff up here?” asked Kihyun, voice vibrating against the blond’s nipple.

Minhyuk made a sound that was a cross between a laugh and a whine. “Stuff?” he sounded breathless. “I have condoms and lube in the front pocket of my bag.”

“Give me one second,” he murmured, kissing Minhyuk’s chest before getting up quickly from the bed. He glanced down briefly as he took the quick steps to reach Minhyuk’s bag and saw his erection was straining already against his boxers.

He dug around the front pocket as Minhyuk had instructed and grabbed out a plastic bottle of lube along with a twelve-pack of Durex condoms. When he turned back around to head back to the bed, he heard Minhyuk mumbling “fifteen Mississippi, sixteen Mississippi, seventeen Mississippi,” and onwards under his breath.

“That took you 23 Mississippis when you said it would be one.”

Only Minhyuk would be a total smart-ass at a time like this. Kihyun rolled his eyes as he crawled back onto the bed, tossing the condoms to the side and keeping the lube securely in his hands. “Sometimes you _really_ talk too much, you know that?”

Minhyuk grinned, watching Kihyun as he crawled to settle between Minhyuk’s legs. “Well, get to work—maybe I’ll shut up then.”

Kihyun tongued the inside of his cheek. “Fine,” he said. He reached down to rip the plaid pajama bottoms off of Minhyuk’s legs, leaving the taller man completely naked and throwing them as far away as possible. Without another word, Kihyun bent down and took the other’s leaking erection deep into his mouth, taking it in as far as he could manage and only stopping once he felt the head rub against the back of his throat.

A loud and sudden moan echoed off the walls of the loft as Minhyuk’s back arched, head thrown back at the feeling of Kihyun’s mouth. It took all of his willpower to hold back his gag reflex—taking the full length of Minhyuk’s cock was something of a challenge that he thought he would never complete, but the site of him arching into his mouth was totally worth the sore throat he undoubtedly would have.

He pulled back up to suck languidly at the head, tongue digging into the slit and then licking over it right after. He could see that Minhyuk’s thigh muscles tensed every time he repeated the motion and he did so until he could feel Minhyuk twitch repeatedly in his mouth.

He could have spent all day sucking the blond off, but he did have a specific purpose for being seated where he was. He removed his mouth, shushing Minhyuk when the man whined, and popped the cap off the bottle of lube to coat his fingers.

“Spread your legs,” he said once his fingers were completely covered and Minhyuk bent his legs at the knees, planting his feet on the bed as his chest visibly rose and fell with breaths of anticipation.

His hand snuck between the long legs and parted his cheeks to find Minhyuk’s hole. He let his finger tease a bit, rubbing up and down over the tight ring of muscle, coating it with lube. He felt the muscle contract as Minhyuk moaned.

“ _Come on_.” Minhyuk’s husky voice sounded desperate, knees wobbling at the continual rubbing of Kihyun’s fingers. “Fuck, I need it.”

“Okay, okay,” amended Kihyun, taking in a shaky breath as he breached Minhyuk with his middle finger. He leaned back to watch over the other man’s expressions as he pushed his finger in to his knuckle before moving it back out it a smooth motion. He felt Minhyuk tense underneath him. He started moving his finger gently in and out, but Minhyuk felt impossibly tight around his digit. “You need to relax, Min.”

“I know,” muttered Minhyuk, his eyes fluttering shut. “I’m just really excited, give me a second.”

Kihyun smirked at that. “…One Mississippi.”

The blond opened his eyes and let out a laugh. “Fucking smart ass,” he chided, no bite in his voice as he felt the muscle relax around his finger.

“Learned from the best.” His smirk stayed on his face until he crooked his finger up and leaned over at the same time, taking Minhyuk into his mouth and hitting his sweet spot at the same time.

“Jesus Christ,” Minhyuk moaned long and loud, body bucking upwards into Kihyun’s mouth as he was pleasured from all angles. The redhead started moving quicker at the reaction, ramming the pad of his finger into his prostate continuously once he found its position. When he felt the give against his finger loosen considerably, he smoothly added his pointer finger into to join it.  

The taller man was transformed into a moaning, writhing mess. He was babbling nothing but expletives and moans, not even remotely coherent as he seemed to completely let go. Kihyun could taste the salt of precum on his tongue as he continued the onslaught, the taste almost constant and proof of what he was doing to Minhyuk. It turned him on more than he ever thought it could, but Lee Minhyuk had a ridiculous effect on him.

It took a while for a coherent thought to come out of the other man, but it happened when Kihyun scissored his fingers. “Fuck, Kihyun I don’t have stamina for this,” he whined, arching once again at another brush of the spot inside of him. “I’m going to cum if you don’t stop.”

Kihyun let the length slip from his mouth once more—after its release from his mouth he saw a thick bead of precum dribble out on Minhyuk’s stomach. “Do you think you’re ready?” asked Kihyun, his voice raspy from arousal and from his boyfriend’s cock rubbing at the back of his throat. He spread his fingers in Minhyuk’s hole again and twisted them right and left.

“ _Yes_ , I’m fucking ready, just get inside me already!” Minhyuk beat his fist against the mattress. “I’m going nuts— _please_ , Ki—I can’t wait anymore.”

He didn’t need to be told again. With a quick nod, he tore off his boxer briefs and tossed them to the floor. He fussed with the box of condoms, struggling for a moment to open it as his hands were shaking so badly.

Eventually he freed a condom from the box and ripped the blue packet open with his teeth so he could roll it over his painfully hard erection. Minhyuk watched all the while with hooded eyes, following Kihyun’s hands as they shakily grabbed the bottle of lube to coat himself thoroughly with it, tossing it somewhere on the bed directly after.

His heart was pounding in his ears as he leaned over Minhyuk’s body, one hand positioned by Minhyuk’s shoulder, holding himself up as his other gripped at the base of his dick. He moved himself so the head was pressed gently against the stretched entrance and he fought the immediate urge to sink in.

“Okay?” he asked, voice soft as he waited for an answer. The blond was having trouble controlling his breath, so he nodded urgently for him to continue.

Kihyun nodded back, biting his top lip as he pressed forward slowly, feeling the ring of muscle give way as he slowly entered him until his tip was encased in heat. His eyes closed with a hiss at the sudden sensation and he paused his movement forward to try and control himself for a moment longer.

Minhyuk had different plans. The next second he felt long legs wrap around him and the blond used his feet to pull Kihyun forward, immediately making him bottom out completely within him.

“Fuck!” Kihyun gasped in surprise, almost falling onto the body below but managing to hold himself up with shaking arms. Minhyuk was so fucking tight and it felt so incredibly _good_ inside of him but he felt a instant pang of panic that he may have hurt the blond, even if it was his doing. However, the exhale that Minhyuk released once Kihyun was completely sheathed within in him told him all he needed to know. It sounded like relief, like all he had been waiting for was this moment to be connected and that the sudden feeling of being filled up by Kihyun was what he irrevocably needed.

Feet pressed into his backside at the same time that arms wrapped around his shoulders. Minhyuk looked at him with so much want, so much need that when the taller man finally said “Please” against his lips with a kiss, he knew exactly what he needed to do. He started moving.

First slow, timed movements—his whole body wanted nothing more than to plunge deep inside fast and hard, but he needed to show Minhyuk something. Show how much this meant to him—to show how much _Minhyuk_ meant to him.

The blond moaned deep in his mouth, legs tight around him and his thin arms pulling Kihyun so close that he laid on top of him, chests pressed and moving together as he was thrust into. He could feel Minhyuk’s erection pressed between their bodies and slid against it every time he moved.

He still took it slow for a few more thrusts, but once he angled himself inside _just_ the right way, all hell broke loose. He plunged in and hit the spot that made Minhyuk jerk.

“Holy fuck, _again_ ,” moaned Minhyuk, not far off from a scream as he pulled his mouth away. He started pushing back with his hips to meet Kihyun halfway. “Again, again, _again_.”

Kihyun rose up, pulling his chest away from the other’s and he let his hips start pounding into the warm body beneath him, his own body on fire as he tried his best to aim every thrust to make contact with that spot deep inside him. He watched as the blond completely unraveled below him and it was utterly intoxicating.

The man’s head was thrown back against the pillow, blond hair splayed out in all directions as he arched up in complete ecstasy. His voice came out in moans, with an occasional ‘more’ tossed in there for good measure. He watched as a large hand reached between their bodies and Minhyuk started stroking himself, trying his best to keep in time with the movements of Kihyun’s hips but the man was so overwhelmed he couldn’t quite manage. Kihyun slapped his hand away and took the weeping cock into his own, holding tight and firm and working him with his hand in tandem with his thrusts.

The orgasm seemed to come out of nowhere as Minhyuk’s eyes flew open, mouth open in a silent gasp, body going tense as he came all over Kihyun’s hand and his stomach, collapsing back to the mattress right afterwards.

He felt Minhyuk constrict around him, making him groan. He dove forward, capturing the spent man’s lips with his,  tongue licking into the mouth as he snapped his hips in and out of Minhyuk’s pliant body. It was almost too much to handle—he almost didn’t want it to ever end.

“You’re doing so fucking good babe,” Minhyuk praised, pulling away to lick over Kihyun’s bottom lip, his eyes hooded. “Finish for me, show me how much you like it.”

That did it. As if on cue, Kihyun released himself, burying as deep inside as he could, hips stuttering as he road out his orgasm and rutted into Minhyuk’s hole.

In his post orgasm high, their bodies were still connected as he stayed perched above the blond, looking at his face. Minhyuk looked blissed out, eyes heavy with a lazy, but breathtaking smile settled on his lips as he looked back at Kihyun in a way that showed he never wanted to be anywhere else. Kihyun couldn’t help but smile back—he absolutely loved Minhyuk.

Wait.

…love?   

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The inner, immature 13 year old in me couldn't help but name this chapter "Magic Carpet Ride" since they finally had sex lol
> 
> As always, thank you everyone who has read, commented or left Kudos on this story. All feedback, no matter what it is, means a lot to me and I can't thank you enough!
> 
> Also, I did change the chapter count from 15 to 16 chapters--I think that should be enough to finish it up, but it may need 17 chapters, IDK. <3


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